Charity phone line move conundrum

[#1]

HI all,
Bit of a complicated situation this; am hoping someone might be able to offer some advice.
I'm currently doing a bit of work for a charity which has the use of two different rooms within a larger building owned by the council; I'll call them the Archive and the Office. Now, at the moment, each room contains the following:
Archive:

• A disconnected residential phone line/socket for which we know the former phone number (as it was a line we used years ago).

Office:

• A live BT (business) Featureline phone service;


• An Andrews & Arnold internet connection.

Presumably because the two rooms are on different sides of the building, each line is served by a different green cabinet.
The charity's needs are changing considerably now as a large project comes to an end, so what we want to do is cancel everything in the Office, and set up a Plusnet phone and internet service in the Archive using the Office's current phone number to receive calls. I understand that Plusnet allow charities to use either residential or business products depending on needs; we were thinking we'd choose business so we have the business support in case of problems and seeing as the cost for unlimited broadband + line without a call plan isn't much more than for residential. (The line won't be used to make any phone calls, only receive them.)
So, the way we thought we'd achieve this is cancel the A&A internet connection, ask BT to move our phone service to the old deactivated line, cancel BT once the move has been done, and sign up with Plusnet. (We are happy to have a break in internet service to achieve this.)
I therefore rang BT up a couple of days ago planning to arrange this, and was given quite a shock when the lady I spoke to told me that because the address of the origin and destination of the move is the same, it'd be classed as a ‘shift’ with a fee of £225! I don't really know what a shift is, but I assume it's something to do with rewiring an existing phone line from a telegraph pole to serve a different socket; I did explain that the cabinets are different for each line but the lady didn't seem to think that mattered. I also enquired about reusing the deactivated socket in the Archive to save money, and she said that couldn't be done because it's tagged as a residential line.
Unfortunately we are an extremely small charity so £225 is a fee that we'd have to think very long and hard about paying. I therefore wondered if we might be able to save some money by perhaps migrating to Plusnet in the Office, before undertaking the move to the Archive? If so, how would we reconcile the fact that we want to move from a business line to a room that already has a disconnected line but it's tagged as residential? It'd seem a shame to not reuse it somehow if it could save some money.
So, any advice about how to achieve the end result for the lowest amount of money whilst retaining the Office phone number would be much appreciated. Thank you.

[#2]

Has the above stumped even the finest minds of Plusnet's Community? We'd still appreciate some help, so if anyone from Plusnet knows how much they'd charge to move (shift?) a phone line as detailed above, or if anyone else can offer insight in to the best way of going about the whole operation of moving the line and switching to Plusnet, we'd be very grateful. Thanks.

[#3]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to just install a new line?

[#4]

If we just installed a new line in the Archive, we wouldn't be able to retain use of the Office phone number unless we paid BT for an expensive permanent redirect.

[#5]

Have you spoken to the business section of Plusnet? https://www.plus.net/business/
If Plusnet cannot come up with an answer, you could look at number porting. Here's one solution using Voice over IP http://www.voipfone.co.uk/PB_Porting_Numbers.php ; but it has the implication you'd need to buy a VOIP phone or adaptor. You'd get a very flexible service as a result.

Edit: When choosing a supplier for voice phone it's worth considering the points raised here: http://www.voipfone.co.uk/scams-of-the-telephony-trade.php

[#6]

Be3G,
Is there something subtle I'm missing here with the BT Business line?  Sounds like you have a job's worth over the residential tag - its a bloody phone line!
Is the A&A BB service on a separate line or on the BT business line?
If on a separate line, you are going to face a cease charge on the BB service whatever way you move it.
Would this work...
Request BB on the BT line from PN asking PN to take over the line.
When all done and dusted ask for a "house move" to the other line.
I suspect getting this all under PN out of BT's hands and then move to what you want might be simpler.

Kevin

[#7]

Quote from: AlaricAdair

Have you spoken to the business section of Plusnet? https://www.plus.net/business/ If Plusnet cannot come up with an answer, you could look at number porting. Here's one solution using Voice over IP http://www.voipfone.co.uk/PB_Porting_Numbers.php ; but it has the implication you'd need to buy a VOIP phone or adaptor. You'd get a very flexible service as a result.

Yeah, I've been suggesting VoIP ever since planning the Office/project setup three years ago but the charity is (understandably) a little nervous of it unfortunately.
I will contact PN's business sales team soon I think, but I wanted to try here first as it's not necessarily a salesperson I want – more, someone who's experienced with business moves and the like. Still, it'll probably be worth a shot, thanks.:)

Quote from: Townman

Would this work... Request BB on the BT line from PN asking PN to take over the line. When all done and dusted ask for a "house move" to the other line. I suspect getting this all under PN out of BT's hands and then move to what you want might be simpler.

Exactly: that's what I'm trying to get information about, in my own very long-winded way, by posting this thread. What I'm really trying to suss out is how much Plusnet would charge us to get the line moved from the Office to the Archive; e.g. would they still say it needs to be a shift rather than a house (business) move, would they charge a smaller fee than BT, would they be able to repurpose the preexisting but deactivated residential line in the Archive… 'tis all quite complicated.