Hi, I thought it would be helpful to share my experiences of transferring my landline number to a VoIP (internet phone) provider when upgrading to a fibre-only package. Plusnet don’t offer VoIP, so you have to find an external provider. Like all landline providers, Plusnet will release the number to another provider, but there is much confusion over the process. The mechanics of the process is that when you sign up to the new provider, you request that the old number is transferred from your current provider to the new provider (you ask the new provider to do this). You will need to provide a Letter of Authority which the new provider will send to the old provider, for them to release the number. Now, for this to be successful, the current (or recent) provider must have control of the number when the request is received. In the past, this has produced a catch 22 situation: you need a current landline contract for the provider to have possession of the line, but as soon as the number transfers it cancels your existing contract, cutting off your broadband and potentially triggering early contract termination fees. However, in April 23, Ofcom’s General Conditions stated that providers must retain possession of your number for 1 month following cancellation of contract for the landline service (rather than returning it to the Range Holder – BT in the case of Plusnet numbers – and probably most others) , thus allowing for porting to occur after termination of the contract for the landline – thus avoiding the common situation where the landline is returned to the range holder and is effectively lost.
Plusnet’s T&Cs state that they are compliant with Ofcom’s General Conditions, so that all sounds good. However, there is much confusion at Plusnet over whether they actually support this post contract porting. I was keen to ensure that the process would run smoothly when upgrading to Full Fibre (FTTP), as my mother was very attached to the number in question, having had the same number for 60 years. I have today spent about 1:30 on the phone to Plusnet, exploring this topic. For the first 1:25, the message was a catagorical “you will lose your old number if you don’t port it prior to to cessation of your landline”. This message was repeated by multiple advisors from different departments. Each checked that they were giving me accurate information. I therefore raised an official complaint with them of non-compliance with Ofcom’s General Conditions. This prompted one further internal enquiry, this time to the ‘early life’ department (presumably, referring to early contract life issues). The outcome of this final enquiry was that Plusnet are indeed compliant with the regulations. I was given some history on this: Plusnet have had a system of internally quarantining landline numbers for quite some time – to allow them to reconnect Plusnet customers with their landline number in case of certain technical issues/lapsed contracts etc. However, in recent times, the quarantined number has been made available to other providers, thus supporting the Ofcom requirements on number porting after a landline contract has ended. Ofcom state that the request must be made within 1 month of termination.
So, if you get pushback from Plusnet, refer them to this post. Another problem that you may encounter is that some VoIP providers don’t understand the situation (e.g. Vonage currently state on their website that the landline must be live at the time of the request, otherwise you will lose the number). If that happens to you, explain to them that the number is still available for transfer (despite not showing as live) and that if they make the request, the number will be released. One provider who appears to understand the process is Andrews and Arnold - so you might want to have a look at them.
I’ve gone into a lot of detail in this post in the hope that it will help other Plusnet users who are keen to retain their landline number – and avoid them spending several hours researching the subject – with few definitive statements available on the subject online. Good luck!
