Old phone number porting issue

I was responsible for an Openreach CFP in our village. Everyone in the village previously had a phone number 01764 683xxx. All except one have had their old number successfully ported over to the Digital Voice service. One household has been given a totally different number on the Perth exchange 01738 xxxxxx. (The 01764 related to exchanges in the Crieff area.) BT insists that this household cannot have their old number ported to their DV service. The copper was disconnected when fibre was installed.
Although attempts have been made to get the old number back, all have failed and in spite of requesting escalation of the issue we are being told it cannot be done. No plausible explanation has been forthcoming. Can anyone explain to me why this should be the case? The lady at the house in question, having had the same number for over 50 years is quite upset at losing it.

Has anyone taken it directly to high level complaints? if not I would try [removed by tbb] as a starting point although not directly BT retail you may find they pass it on to someone who can help.

Edited by seb (Mon 02-Feb-26 21:39:37)

Openreach are a separate legal entity to BT Consumer, so they shouldn't really be accepting or passing on complaints unless they do the same for all the retail phone providers.

The team in Consumer does have people who are experts in number porting, they had to sort mine after needing to create a new account for my FTTP service.

Mark Allera is the person at the top to contact, there is an e-mail address for the customer resolution team too but I think you might need a case opening before they respond. Marc's e-mail is @ee.co.uk rather than @bt.com as he came from the EE part of the business.

In reply to a post by Ad_G:

Openreach are a separate legal entity to BT Consumer, so they shouldn't really be accepting or passing on complaints unless they do the same for all the retail phone providers.

Although the PSTN is run by Openreach.

Plus they both sit behind one actual legal entity of "British Telecommunications plc" and gave 'structural separation' agreements to Ofcom. They can easily pass emails to each other. The regulator couldn't force a full split as there was the whole problem of whom would solve the pension fund gaps.

In reply to a post by Ad_G:

Openreach are a separate legal entity to BT Consumer, so they shouldn't really be accepting or passing on complaints unless they do the same for all the retail phone providers.

They certainly have done in the recent past, I had an issue with a line through Sky and couldn't get the issue resolved via the Sky call centre so I made a high level complaint to Openreach and within a day I had Sky high level complaints on the phone and they made it very clear that they was calling because they had received a call from Openreach high level complaint and the issue soon got resolved. It worked for me but it doesn't mean it will work for others.

Thanks for all the advice. I have emailed Marc Allera quoting my post here (note the name is Marc and not Mark), copying Clive Selley. I'll report back any progress in due course.

The lady concerned deserves at the very least a rational explanation. She is emotionally attached to the old number and I think would not have signed up to fibre if she had known this would be the outcome.

If the escalations within BT fail, then I’d suggest next taking it up with the Telecommunications Adjudicator.

The new industry wide 30-day “Right to Port” protection against losing a pre-existing landline number is due to come in April next year, but they may be able to assist, although in this case the port is all within BTs remit, rather than across vendors.

The advice from this forum has been very helpful. I have not received any direct replies to my emails to people at the top but someone from, and I quote, "Executive Complaints" has been in touch with the householder. He said that he would have more access to information on where problems are arising than staff who previously attempted the number porting.
I await further progress with interest!

I will keep my fingers crossed for the affected lady.

"Executive Complaints"

A small team in each of BT Corporate, OpenReach, Consumer/Retail, Business. Any complaint email that goes to the Chairman, CEO, COO, CFO, CTO and similar is passed on to them. So, in reallity you have had a reply from the top.

Internally when "Executive Complaints" calls, you pull out the stops and comply with them.

If the householder is elderly and wants further help from you, she can always nminate you as her alternate contact - you may understand things better and be able to help her out.

In reply to a post by MHC:

"Executive Complaints"

A small team in each of BT Corporate, OpenReach, Consumer/Retail, Business. Any complaint email that goes to the Chairman, CEO, COO, CFO, CTO and similar is passed on to them. So, in reallity you have had a reply from the top.

Internally when "Executive Complaints" calls, you pull out the stops and comply with them.

If the householder is elderly and wants further help from you, she can always nminate you as her alternate contact - you may understand things better and be able to help her out.

That's very helpful advice for the op.

Hopefully they will be able to progress things for them.

The Executive Complaints team was the team I expected to reply when you emailed Marc (I know it is Marc auto correct caught me out!). My past experiences of that team have been very positive, they seem to have access to the right systems, experts and more importantly the authority to get things done.

They worked with the Number Porting experts to get my old copper number over to my FTTP last year after many issues getting it all working.

I have had the same problem getting a BT Retail number ported to Digital Voice with Zen. BT basically blocked it with an excuse saying there was another order provisioned (Which there isnt)

No skin of my nose, as I have been getting nothing but spam and scammer calls on the number anyway, anyone that reaches me that needs to contacts my mobile so I didnt really care and just got a new number.

I can now report a total failure to get the old number ported over. BT's Executive Customer Resolution Team member Lee Sales has said it cannot be done. Quoting from the message the householder has just sent me:

"He called back and it’s a final NO for getting the number back. BT have a 30 day retention policy for porting over a number. I asked the reason for this, as I fail to understand any reason for having such a policy, he couldn’t answer and said senior management have to make decisions and this is one of their decisions. It’s an across the board policy so we can’t make an exception and nothing can be done! After 30 days the number goes into quarantine – and just sits there until BT reallocate it."

I cannot understand why the 30 day mention is of any relevance. The lady concerned has being trying to get the old number back since the fibre was connected. I also can't understand why an unallocated number cannot be allocated back. Apart from a complaint to the Telecommunications Adjudicator does anyone have any suggestions of what else we could try?
Lee did offer a token financial compensation which was not accepted.

She needs to respond stating that an attempt was made before the 30 day period expired - assuming she complained immediately.

The Telecom Adjudicator should be involved after the above.

So its possible but they won't do it because they won't make an exception for your friend.

As MHC says time to get the Telecom Adjudicator involved

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

If the escalations within BT fail, then I’d suggest next taking it up with the Telecommunications Adjudicator.

The new industry wide 30-day “Right to Port” protection against losing a pre-existing landline number is due to come in April next year, but they may be able to assist, although in this case the port is all within BTs remit, rather than across vendors.

Escalations at the most senior level have failed. I’d get it taken up with the adjudicator asap.

Try sticking in a port request with a VoIP provider and supplying the details as if it's an active service, I've had this work once.

…from BT land? Who was the gaining voice provider out of interest?

In that instance it was Gamma

Cheers jpm. It’s another shot worth taking for the OP at this stage. Appeal to the adjudicator will take time and there is more risk the number will be reallocated from whatever pool it’s in as time goes on.

This post by the owner of AAISP managed to get his number back after 10 years https://www.revk.uk/2016/04/keeping-your-number.html so might be worth having a word with him.