As I have posted, we are working on stuff with BT renumbering and number export (which is going quite well now actually), but in part of the process I got to understand the BT systems a bit better.
For amusement I checked, and the quite distinctive telephone number that we first had when we moved to Bracknell was in the free number pool. We have not had that number for over 20 years now. So, as part of my testing I had a play, renumbered on to a line, and exported to VoIP. It worked!
I think it is quite cool getting a really old phone number back. I found I could get my wife's old house number from when she was a kid, but she was not at all interested. Maybe it is just me. It is not really a "service" we can offer though, sorry.
Anyway, first and only call so far on that number:-
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ReplyDeleteI think you might find a lot of people would be interested in getting their old numbers back. I'd love to get my childhood phone number back just to freak my parents out. What sort of price makes it financially viable?
ReplyDeleteHa, well, it is complicated. First we have to find if the number is spare - that is easy, but I have to check if that has any cost or not to BT a d we don't have a customer API/order for that, but can do manually. Then we have to renumber it on to an actual line in the area, which is tricky. In theory we have lines in many areas where we are WLR3 and the number is not part of the service (it is not telephony we provide) but we would have to be damn sure that it breaks nothing and ideally only do this with consent of the user of the service, or at least some "at risk" notice. Once renumbered on to a line, we have to renumber and export it off. A better solution is probably work out how to number it on to a remote call forward service, which is possible, and then straight port that - would involve not risking a customer line in any way, which would be way better. In my case we had a spare line in our office I could use. So, as a service, we sort of need to spend a few days researching the right / clean way to do it for a start, do some test orders, and then ultimately offer as a service. It is something we could try as a one off maybe, but probably only for like a hundred quid or something to make it worth while.
DeleteP.S. Step 1 - call the number and confirm it is not in service :-)
DeleteDamn its ringing!
ReplyDeleteAh, sorry, maybe one day :-)
DeleteI know it's been quite a while since this blog entry, but just wondered if this had ever progressed to being a service? It would be quite a useful service, like for us, we take on several pubs which by the time we take over, the phone line has been disconnected and we loose the number that is advertised everywhere. It would be handy to be able to grab the old number instead of trying to get all online listings updated etc
ReplyDeleteNot so much a service, but certainly something you can email us and ask us if we can manage it. It is a tad manual. If we get a lot of requests we could make it more automated.
DeleteOld thread but did this go anywhere? Looking to switch to FTTP on Plusnet but it means loosing my landline number. Happy to port and use a VOIP provider but does not seem possible during the upgrade so would like to recover the number post-migration.
ReplyDeleteFTTP does not use same “wires” so should be possible to install without touching telephone service.
DeleteThanks for the reply. It's not the physical wires that are the issue, it's the ISP order upgrade process cancelling the line. My ISP does not have a Voip solution and I am unable to port my number to a Voip service before the migration as that would cancel the contract that supplies the current broadband.
DeleteThe ISP is Plusnet and I have a domain hosted with them as well as a fixed IP, both of which will be retained if I migrate but lost if I create a new FTTP contract with a view to cancelling the other by porting the number to a Voip service.
You should be able to migrate the PSTN to VoIP, whoever the provider is. Normally that kills any broadband on the line. But there is no technical reason you should not be able to have FTTP and your PSTN+broadband at the same time as an overlap if you need.
Delete