Moving Numbers
Posted: Thu 3 May, 2007 Filed under: Customer Services, Getting Organised, House Work, Thoughts 1 Comment »Yesterday I called BT about us moving house, and organising the (hopefully) seamless transfer of phone and broadband from where we are now to where we will be, and all on the day we move.
Which is going to be the 25th May, just in case anyone cared/wanted to know.
It shouldn’t be a problem, as we’re only moving roughly six miles, and will still be in the same area code – but no, we won’t be able to keep the current phone number. Apparently we’re going to be on a different exchange, and this throws a spanner in the works for keeping our existing phone number.
I don’t care, particularly, but it just seems strange that BT can’t manage the (on the surface) simple thing of keeping the phone number if you move within the same phone area code. Apparently it’s fine if you’re staying on the same exchange, but it’s a no-no if you’re moving exchange. Mind you, it’s not like there’s going to be someone using that number on the different exchange, is it?
Maybe I need some landline phone expert to educate me a bit on this one…
I don’t claim to be a ‘landline phone expert’, but I have a certain amount of experience with the organisation you mention, as a customer of their wholesale side. And some of the time it’s just as much of a mystery to us. Although it’s obviously possible, technically, to route a number to an exchange other than its native one, they just refuse to do so. With no idea just how much hassle it would be and how much it would cost, I can’t really comment on whether that’s fair.
You can port a geographic number to another provider, who then have to set up the routing for that number on its own and can terminate it anywhere on their network. Unfortunately there are relatively few line rental providers who aren’t buying it straight from BT. The cable providers can do it, and a couple of others might have enough unbundling done near you to manage: TalkTalk can at times, although I hear their customer service is very poor.
Although most people’s products are fairly immature, you could port your number to a VoIP provider, who could then terminate it on a SIP account or similar. If it’s a business ‘line’ you might do well to get 20:1 contention but you might get by on 50:1; apparently many Skype users are happy on their normal home connections (although Skype’s proprietary protocol is a little smarter than SIP).
SIP-to-analogue adaptors (to provide a socket for your existing equipment) starts at £30 or so, I think.
Porting can be a hassle though: it generally works sooner or later but is by no means guaranteed to be on schedule. I don’t know much about porting from BT, but if it’s anything like porting in it may have a similar cost to a line start-up, so if someone recommends that they install a new line then port the number onto it (rather than to port the number at the same time as the line startup) check that you won’t be charged two line installations for it.
If your number is worth a fortune, ask BT for Remote Call Forwarding, which silently (I think) redirects calls onto your new number. It’s expensive, because you pay rental on it (more than a line, strangely) and you pay for the divert leg of the call. I always recommend against it, not least because your customers aren’t learning the new number, so it just keeps costing more and more.
If you do change the number and you want people to keep up, take a few months of Caller Redirect, which is the ‘The number you’ve dialled has changed to …’ announcement. It’s a few quid a month with no hidden costs. Be warned that the announcement begins with the three-tone alert noise of ‘The number you’ve dialled has not been recognised’ fame, so stupid or impatient people may not listen to it…
OK, I’m done. Just rabbitting from the top of my head: if you’d like some more information on anything, drop me a mail.