Sky FTTP Phone Number

Interesting (perhaps !)

Two years ago my son migrated his FTTP connection from BT to Sky.
I was a little surprised that the same 'landline' phone number moved over too.

He moved house over the weekend, and today Sky have transferred his FTTP service to his new home. He's only moved 400 yards, and within the same exchange area code, but the number has changed ?

(Doesn't matter, he only has a 5 quid Argos phone plugged in, with the ringer switched off !)

I moved a relative in 2020 who had a Sky broadband and telephone service and it was also within the same exchange area and was told by Sky that it was considered a cease and new provide which caused a new number to be allocated. They actually told me if my relative wanted to keep their number they would need to transfer to a different provider.

In reply to a post by dect:

I moved a relative in 2020 who had a Sky broadband and telephone service and it was also within the same exchange area and was told by Sky that it was considered a cease and new provide which caused a new number to be allocated. They actually told me if my relative wanted to keep their number they would need to transfer to a different provider.

Interesting, was that PSTN or 'DV' ?

Clearly the key to landline number portability is now with a 3rd party VoIP supplier.
What a shame the migration path to them is still a shambolic confusing mess (Here's looking at you Ofcom)

Sky have never been able to transfer numbers within their own network, even within the same exchange area, in the 15+ years I've been with them.

It's not really been a problem for me because in the days before Talk Shield I invariably had loads of spam calls building up so a change of number was welcome.

In reply to a post by simon194:

Sky have never been able to transfer numbers within their own network, even within the same exchange area, in the 15+ years I've been with them.

So Sky can easily migrate a number (in either direction) but not keep one within their system !?

In reply to a post by broadbandjockey:

In reply to a post by simon194:

Sky have never been able to transfer numbers within their own network, even within the same exchange area, in the 15+ years I've been with them.

So Sky can easily migrate a number (in either direction) but not keep one within their system !?

Not easily in either direction.
Generally migrating numbers to Sky is easy but migrating that number away is not always as simple.
Many providers aren't able to migrate in numbers from Sky.

The process is far too complicated but it basically relies on porting agreements being made between different parties meaning Sky don't control both directions the same.

None of that explains why they can't transfer numbers within their own network though.

OFCOM migration changes should make things much easier in future but they have been delayed. They also might not cover moves within the providers own network.

Edited by j0hn83 (Wed 01-Mar-23 13:06:23)

In reply to a post by broadbandjockey:

Interesting, was that PSTN or 'DV' ?

PSTN, it was a pain in the backside as the affected relative was elderly and we had to go through the process of notifying everyone.

To be fair to Sky when we notified Sky of a subsequent moved of the same relative into a nursing home they were very helpful although when we tried to cancel their out of contract EE mobile phone (and we were a named contact on their database) they refused to help so we had to go through the whole process of providing them with a Lasting Power of Attorney before they would cancel it.

In reply to a post by broadbandjockey:

In reply to a post by simon194:

Sky have never been able to transfer numbers within their own network, even within the same exchange area, in the 15+ years I've been with them.

So Sky can easily migrate a number (in either direction) but not keep one within their system !?

Talktalk are the same, or at least were.

I had a friend who was a NOC engineer in Talktalk, and had a Talktalk phone line. He was moving within the exchange area. The only way he could keep his phone number was to transfer the line to BT, move house, and then a year later (at end of BT contract) transfer the line back to Talktalk.

The number of home movers within area is quite small, so these companies can't be bothered to create the business processes necessary for handling them.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

The number of home movers within area is quite small,

That surprises me too, my gut reaction is most house moves are 'local', although thinking about previous buyers and sellers of mine over the years, they've mainly come from the same area code, but often a different 'sub exchange'

I've managed to keep my landline number since 2000 and three house moves !

Edited by broadbandjockey (Wed 01-Mar-23 17:18:38)

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

In reply to a post by broadbandjockey:

So Sky can easily migrate a number (in either direction) but not keep one within their system !?

Not easily in either direction.
Generally migrating numbers to Sky is easy but migrating that number away is not always as simple.
Many providers aren't able to migrate in numbers from Sky.

The process is far too complicated but it basically relies on porting agreements being made between different parties meaning Sky don't control both directions the same.
[...]

For what it's worth, I successfully ported a PSTN number from Sky to Sipgate last year and all went smoothly, despite me cutting it rather fine in submitting my porting request to Sipgate in terms of the date when I wanted the port to happen. The number was native to Sky's number range.

(I actually had a NOW Broadband + phone service, NOW being a Sky brand. I anticipated problems because Sipgate's porting form requested the account number from the donor provider, but NOW doesn't present a customer-facing account number - however this didn't prove to be a problem.)