In reply to a post by dect:

So are they stroke lines e.g. /1 , /2 and /3 with the same number and is the broadband on the first line?

I've managed to get a bill (tells me nothing) and a look at the account on-line.

There is only one number mentioned, nothing about other lines /2 or /3.

They have a "Business Auxiliary line service” at £33.89 per month and a "Calling Feature Pack" at £5.03 per month. Once a mobile phone is taken into account there's still £90 left which I assume is line rental.

I think I just want to give this to Sipgate or the like but I do know (from experience) you need to have all your facts lined up otherwise the port will be rejected.

In reply to a post by danielhyde:

It sounds to me like you have an analogue multi line.

Looks that way then. As I say here https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/general/t/4709946-... there's no mention of other numbers on the bill.

In reply to a post by danielhyde:

It sounds to me like you have an analogue multi line.
...snip....
You will be unable to port this to a single analogue line.

Maybe not. Zen are now saying they can place an order for a 'transfer of existing line' to Zen so that number goes to them and then transfer that number to the current Zen line. Then cancel the second line and pay the early termination fees.

Oh, and we still may lose the number anyway.

In reply to a post by Woolwich:

Zen seem to have accepted it is possible and started the process only to be told by BT the number was unavailable.

Porting the number to VoIP is an option if Zen won't play. But I currently have no idea - after looking at the account on-line - how many numbers are on the PBX or what they're paying for. BT's opacity makes treacle easy to see through....

I helped relocate a business with an ISDN2e plus a number of analog lines an number of years ago, as with you trying to decipher the BT Business billing is almost impossible. As there were some non-trival changes required (changing the DN on the ISDN2e, porting some of the analog line numbers to MSNs) and BT being decidely unhelpful everything was transferred to ICUK with a like-for-like takeover, they then handled the relocation, renumbering and porting with a set of linked orders.

It may be worth having Zen, if they are able, do a like-for-like takeover of the current BT lines so they have full control of the process.

In reply to a post by tdw42:

It may be worth having Zen, if they are able, do a like-for-like takeover of the current BT lines so they have full control of the process.

Yes, they seem to be willing. However they say we will need another line which defeats the object. And it's going to be expensive.

The point was to have one landline and the original BT number. We should have been told before the Zen landline & FTTC was installed to have them do a line takeover. Now its all going wrong...

From the description, looks like Dect spotted it correctly … main number then a couple of aux lines .. does the number get a lot of traffic then ?

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

does the number get a lot of traffic then ?

More when there were lots of people in the office. But they need to keep the number active as it's the only one customers know. The plan (was) to have it go direct to voicemail telling punters to call the new number. After a couple of years it would become redundant.

If only they did that five years ago... Not to mention the pile of cash they'd have saved.

In reply to a post by Woolwich:

In reply to a post by tdw42:

It may be worth having Zen, if they are able, do a like-for-like takeover of the current BT lines so they have full control of the process.

Yes, they seem to be willing. However they say we will need another line which defeats the object. And it's going to be expensive.

It sounds as they are looking at a transfer, maybe to LLU. The whole point of like-for-like / working line takeover is that there are no physical changes involved, just a change of provider for the same underlying WLR3 servce.

In reply to a post by tdw42:

It sounds as they are looking at a transfer, maybe to LLU. The whole point of like-for-like / working line takeover is that there are no physical changes involved, just a change of provider for the same underlying WLR3 servce.

The fly in the ointment could be that the landlines are in different locations. It's an office move and we want the old landline number to ring in the new office (which is on the same exchange). I think we should have moved the number at the same time we ordered the new line. But the office was ready before the people were ready to move and getting the telecoms in place before the staff seemed like a cunning plan...

True enough.

Hindsight is, as we all know, 20/20 vision