Can't move my old BT number to my new Plusnet line

[#1]

Hi,

I'm in the process of moving house, I've already got a Plusnet phone line set up at the new property, and have been allocated a number. Now however, I want to move my BT number from my former residence onto the Plusnet line, replacing the number I was allocated automatically. I contacted Plusnet via phone and was told this wouldn't be possible, I was somewhat amazed by this, perhaps expecting that, as a subsidiary of BT, the transition would perhaps be that bit smoother.

I did neglect to say during the call, that I have literally moved across the road to downsize, so I would expect the telephone exchange must be the same, if that makes a difference.

The old BT account is still active, and I will own both the properties for a short while, so there will be no problem waiting out the quarantine period (or whatever) for the number to be released by BT.

First of all, I'd like to know if I've been correctly informed that the number move wouldn't be at all possible.

If that turns out not to be the case, I'd like to know the correct procedure for attempting to get this number move accomplished, to save the huge inconvenience of having to inform every company and all the people I know that my number has changed.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[#2]

It might be the way you're going about it. I can imagine that if you asked for Plusnet to swap the numbers over then that would be too hard for them. If however you ask Plusnet to cancel the line at your new address as one activity then as a seperate activity transfer your current line at the old address to the new address then it should work. Unfortunately I can imagine that there are numerous ways that Plusnet could screw this up.

[#3]

The status of the line at the old address is not clear from the OP, and I'm thinking that it could make a difference as to the best way forward.  

Is the line at the old address a BT telephony only line, a BT telephony line with Plusnet broadband, or a BT broadband and telephony line?

[#4]

Hi,

Thanks very much for your reply, to supply the extra detail, the BT line at the old address is a broadband and telephony line, and I was hoping to have the number moved to the Plusnet broadband and telephony line at the new address, the phone convocation I had with support didn't progress even that far, as soon as I said it was a BT phone line at the old address I was told it wouldn't be possible, I wasn't asked about the other services on the old line, and didn't even get as far as giving the number.

I'm grateful for any advice I can get here, it'll be much appreciated.

[#5]

Perhaps I should further clarify that both the old BT and new Plusnet lines are fibre broadband.

I am also open to the approach Baldrick suggested of cancelling the line on the new property and asking Plusnet to transfer my number when signing up to a new line, If that will work, confidence that it would didn't seem especially high there. 

As a last resort I was even contemplating the idea of signing up for the one month Plusnet contract at the old address, and taking the BT number with it over to Plusnet, then hopefully I would be able to transfer the number over to the other property, which is still in the early stages of its (much longer) contract, there is of course some (not small) cost incurred in that, and I'm not even sure if I'll be able to move the number between Plusnet accounts like that. Also when I inserted the old BT number into the Plusnet service checker, to figure out the cost hit I would incur, the option for the one month broadband (non fibre) contract disappeared, and I was left with only 12 or 18 month contracts to choose from, what possible reason could there be for that?

Thanks again all for any guidance you have for me.

[#6]

Post deleted and rewritten. I've just realised reading your original post again that by BT telephone number that what you really mean is that your old property has a BT phone and internet service.

[#7]

Ask PN about 'porting' your old number onto your PN line.

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@Ann4 wrote:

Hi,

I'm in the process of moving house, I've already got a Plusnet phone line set up at the new property, and have been allocated a number. Now however, I want to move my BT number from my former residence onto the Plusnet line, replacing the number I was allocated automatically. I contacted Plusnet via phone and was told this wouldn't be possible, I was somewhat amazed by this, perhaps expecting that, as a subsidiary of BT, the transition would perhaps be that bit smoother.

I did neglect to say during the call, that I have literally moved across the road to downsize, so I would expect the telephone exchange must be the same, if that makes a difference.

The old BT account is still active, and I will own both the properties for a short while, so there will be no problem waiting out the quarantine period (or whatever) for the number to be released by BT.

First of all, I'd like to know if I've been correctly informed that the number move wouldn't be at all possible.

If that turns out not to be the case, I'd like to know the correct procedure for attempting to get this number move accomplished, to save the huge inconvenience of having to inform every company and all the people I know that my number has changed.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

---

[#8]

Hi Ann.

Assuming your telephone number is currently provided on the same exchange that we're providing your line to at your new address, we should be able to place a renumber order which should cease the old line with BT renumbering our line.

Although the postcode would likely be different, so we may encounter a problem with validation of the number as we don't have an option to supply another postcode when placing a renumber order using a number that's already on the BT network.

Basically the order may get rejected by our suppliers/the losing provider (which in this case is BT Retail/Consumer) due to the postcode we'd be providing automatically (the new postcode) not matching what they have on their records (the old one).

If that's the case, while the option of signing up a new account at your old address should work as we'd be able to transfer the telephone number to us that way, when we place a renumber order using a number from another line we're providing, I believe the number has to reside on the same cluster at the exchange as opposed to just the same exchange. As far as I'm aware this isn't something we can check in advance.

Another option would be to request BT to cease the line/phone number they're providing and assuming the rangeholder/operator of the number is BT, the number should be released within 24 hours and we should be able to pick it up within a further 24 hours renumbering your line.

However, if a rangeholder isn't BT, then once ceased it'll go back to whoever network the rangeholder is. A rangeholder is a provider's network where the number was first made on. Ceased numbers generally can't be transferred between rangeholders unless the provider who is requesting it had previously provided the number and ceased it in error.

You'd be able to check this though by entering your number Here and looking for the operator.

If you can PM me the postcode and the telephone number I'd be happy to check this out further for you.

Hope this helps.