Who owns my telephone number

Yet again I am going to rabbit on about telephone numbers and whether or not one can keep it whem moving to a different ISP. I have had the same tel number for about twenty years and, understandably, am reluctant to lose it. At present I am with Virgin Media, and pay them the line rental, before that I was with talk talk, and payed them the line rental, and before that with BT and each time I moved I requested to keep my number with the new ISP without any undue problem. Because I am now with VM then I am no longer using any component of the original BT wiiring ( am I correct on this ) so I assume that VM own my number. Am I correct in assuming that the wiring is the same as when I was with Talk Talk which was LLU. Obviously BT have'nt re issued the number because I am still using it but where does TT come into all this ? Am I correct in assuming that at the moment the BT original wiring isn't being used at all. So who actually owns my number and who can/will pass it on when I move to a new ISP? I hope there is an Open Reach reader who can advise me on this issue.

The wires have nothing to do with it - the number is yours to port if you wish. The new phone provider may not be able to use it for some reason though so the port can fail. If it was once a BT number and you haven't moved house then I imagine getting it back on the BT network (regardless of who is doing the billing) should be OK.

That said there was a very recent thread where people were complaining about porting failures from VM to BT.

hi,

port it to a voip service such as voipfone.co.uk, then you can take the number with you, even if you do move!, change line provider, go wireless etc..

means your "number" then becomes portable , answer/call wherever you are that has internet

just a thought.

Apparently there is an organisation that holds and issues all telephone numbers.
BT disconnected me once and after they decided it was in error, apparently I couldn't get my number of 30+ years back as it wasn't mine to have and this 'organisation' would have to be asked if it was still available (after 1 days disconnection!!!). It took three weeks to sort it out, don't ask me why.
Mind you according to BT, business, residential, open reach and everyone else are all separate and don't talk to each other and that's why you have to pay �1.50 for yet another organisation to take your money. Strangely, they all share the same bank account.

As others have said the process is known as porting.

This link may or may not be useful :-

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/gc18r...

"consumers should not only have the ability to retain their phone number
(as they have had for many years) but should also be aware of this ability
and should be able to obtain number portability easily, reliably and
conveniently."

So far I've been unable to get any response from Ofcom.

I do, I bought it from a bloke in the pub for £200 after a few pints.

Here's the "Janet & John" version...

http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/tell-us/telecoms/servi...

Portability (Fixed lines)

At Ofcom we fully understand that your phone number is important to you.

If you choose to change providers, you want to keep that number and avoid any hassle for friends and family. If you�re a business, your customers will have your number in their phones and systems, and any change can also be very costly.

So if you�re staying at the same address and your number is active, your current provider must allow it to be transferred to a new phone company.

Whilst the new provider doesn�t have to accept this request, it is in their interests to do so. They should also make all the transfer arrangements.

Strange as according to http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/talktalk/t/3977672-... this is just a plan not a reality.

As I said way back in my very first post in this thread VM have to release the number but there is nothing in place to force the new provider to accept it.

That is exactly the same as it says in the Ofcom text which I've posted.

Why are you having a problem understanding this?

In reply to a post by kwikbreaks:

Why are you having a problem understanding this?

I guess I thoought someone might have sorted something out by now, but as usual the poor customer always suffers.

In reply to a post by kwikbreaks:

As I said way back in my very first post in this thread VM have to release the number but there is nothing in place to force the new provider to accept it.

Of course the new provider could quite easily lose business over failing to understand customer requirement to retain number.

This sort of inertia is why BT and similar keep millions of broadband and voice connections where people might get better deals.

You'll probably only find that you won't be keeping your number after all when it's too late.

Thanks for posting that link.

Contacts were with BT more than 30 years before moving to what was NTL. The retained their number. Moving on another 13 years, they left Virgin Media and are now with anothr provider (LLU). They "had" to change their phone number, which is not easy for folks approaching eighty.

I phoned their original number and it's not in use after 3 weeks.

Edited by ARD (Fri 25-Mar-11 10:28:43)

In reply to a post by ARD:

They "had" to change their phone number, which is not easy for folks approaching eighty.

I don't think age comes into it. It's not easy for anyone, but most providers don't seem to care.

I've taken a Vonage VOIP subscription out and my number is scheduled to be ported from VM to them tomorrow (I hope that isn't significant as it's April 1st).

The number was originally BT and I ported it to VM when I had their phone and BB installed (free install 2 or 3 half price months and £120 cashback by taking the phone as well as BB). I never used VM for telephony as it is too expensive - I used VOIPcheap with an ATA I got on eBay which worked out at around £3 a month. Incoming calls went to the VM line and outgoing via VOIP. Now that the year is up I can bin the VM phone completely and move to Vonage who accept ports.

Savings are - £3 by ditching the line (this varies by BB package) and £2 I was paying for caller id. My Vonage UK calls deal costs £5.99 so free anytime UK geographic number calls together with lots of call features including caller id cost £0.99p. Using VM telephony that would be £7.99 for the XL phone + £2 for caller id.

Now all I need to hope for is that the port works....

===Update===

The port completed successfully and the VM line is now dead.
I received a letter from VM confirming the service termination.
After the port I got a call from Vonage to confirm it had all worked correctly.

I can only conclude that the problems people have had porting from VM to BT must be down to BT which is what I suspected all along.