Can BT refuse to transfer a number out?

Guys,

Recently ditched BT for Ogi (Spectrum as was) and opted to move the landline as well, preserving the landline number. Ogi handles all that, apparently and for the fibre install/broadband there were no problems

Cometh the day, sadly, BT didn't oblige and has refused (twice) the request to transfer my old number over to Ogi/their VoIP provider.

My old phone plugs in to the ONT and works just fine with the temporary number supplied by Ogi so I am guessing its a BT screw-up.

Anyone else had a similar problem when migrating away from traditional landline to VoIP? If so where does one need to apply pressure in BT to get a resolution?

Basically you need to lean on Ogi, as the gaining provider for the voice service, to resolve any issues or mistakes with the number transfer from BT.

To provide a bit more colour / context...as the process of number transfer is gaining provider led (presumably you told Ogi that you want them to transfer the existing number to them in good time) then its up to Ogi to liaise with BT to resolve.

Ogi ought to be able to provide you with details as to precisely why BT rejected the transfer (or otherwise didn't complete it as expected). Ordinarly the porting process is done in a few days, but by rights could theoretically take up to ten days. So when you're speaking with Ogi, ask them on what date the porting request to BT was made.

https://www.btwholesale.com/assets/documents/help-an...

I would escalate with Ogi. Strike whilst the iron is hot - and before the 30 days are up and the number is chucked back into the pool.

Edited by Pheasant (Mon 25-Nov-24 14:34:57)

Yeh - I beat Ogi with a stick last Thursday and they put the request in again - the 30 days is up on 30th Nov.

It will be a royal PITA to change everything that uses the landline number...

You won't have to change anything, Ogi will have been told why the port rejected and usually it's an address mismatch or things like that.

Why not transfer your number to a VOIP ISP such as Voipfone or A&A? That way you could change broadband provider without having to alter your phone arrangements.

That would also give you a bigger choice of ISPs, as a lot of them don't do VOIP.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

Why not transfer your number to a VOIP ISP such as Voipfone or A&A? That way you could change broadband provider without having to alter your phone arrangements.

In reply to a post by jhw:

That would also give you a bigger choice of ISPs, as a lot of them don't do VOIP.

Respectfully I think the gee gee's have bolted on that one folks. Best the OP just gets this sorted now with Ogi before the number evaporates.

Pheasant, I agree, but it may be worth for the OP to have a quick phone to A&A and see what they might be able to to do ..

Ogi has messed this up

In my (very) limited experience, a number-porting issue can arise because of, for example, a mismatch in the data held by the systems at BT Wholesale and Openreach: my understanding is that they have separate systems for holding details of physical lines and numbers. If such a data mismatch occurs during a landline / number port (for whatever reason), it can require a concerted effort by all concerned to resolve it.

In my case last year, it was my LCP (losing comms provider) that had to raise a case with both Ofcom and BT Wholesale to resolve my particular issue – at the time my GCP (gaining comms provider) had little visibility into the issue.

In your case, things may potentially be tricksy because your LCP is BT and your GCP may be comparatively inexperienced at handling such issues: I would suggest you politely ask your GCP to consider whether they need to raise cases with BT Wholesale /Openreach and / or Ofcom to get the issue resolved.

Landline / number porting can be complex, and is not always a straightforward process: I appreciate the new One Touch Switch framework from Ofcom is meant to make things a lot simpler for the customer, but at the end of the day, there is still a lot of technical work potentially to be done in the background, simply because some of these systems at BT / Openreach have a lot of history and baggage to them: the next year or two will I’m sure, highlight any number of issues with the vintage systems and data still in place. It will I think need a fair bit of co-operative work and patience to resolve them.

If you want to know more, there’s lots on the web to read about the process of number porting. For example, the following may well be out of date by now, and might be considered overly detailed by some, but it gives a taste of what’s historically been involved in porting a number:

https://www.magrathea-telecom.co.uk/industry_porting...



Best of luck

Many thanks for your support and confirming what I thought was the case - it was a SNAFU between BT and Ogi...

We got an email yesterday saying the number port had completed - which is lucky because the hourglass would have run out on Saturday.

Regarding using another VoIP provider - yes the thought did occur to me, however as a being subject to the whims of SWMBO, I went for the simple cheap, solution.

Simple it is indeed; I just plug my existing DECT phone base into the ONT and it JustWorks(tm) I guess in a similar manner to DigitalVoice on BT.
Yup that surprised me - especially as the Ogi supplied router is set up to accept calls on their Voice VLAN and has two phone sockets - but hey it works /me shrugs

Edited by Sponge35 (Thu 28-Nov-24 10:01:15)