Old phone number not transferred, why not?

[#1]

When I call my old number from my mobile, I get "the person you are calling is unavailable, please leave a message after the tone"

When I call me mobile from my landline an strange number is displayed in my missed calls. Why has my old number not been transferred on 06/12/2021?

And, when I call the strange number on my mobile, I get "this number is not it service".

Wires have been crossed somewhere, please help!

[#2]

@22martin 

The why not is because, as you suggest, Openreach have screwed up.

I assume that you asked for your old number to be transferred when you switched to Plusnet? It is not retained by default.

[#3]

Yes, I asked for my old number to be transferred, it's highlighted as such in my welcome contract letter.

[#4]

Plusnet support have arranged an engineer to call on the 20th of this month, I don't see the point, the issue is clearly not within my 4 walls.

[#5]

Hi there,

The issue may or may not be within the boundaries of your property but arranging a visit is generally a way we begin an engineering investigation into an problem, so they can test from your master socket and work their way back from there to try to get to the bottom of the issue. 

I’m surprised you’ve got an engineer visit booked 10 days away as we’d normally be able to arrange within 48 hours, unless of course you’re not available sooner. 

[#6]

Hi Anoush, thank you for explaining the work-back procedure. Yes, you are correct, a visit could not be arranged for tomorrow (13th) and my next availability is the 20th. I hope my old number does not expire, this would throw up many security issues with banks and the like. Thanks again.

[#7]

Was your line provisioned with your number? You’ll be able to get an idea if so by checking the Phone tab of your account to see if your number shows up there.

If that’s the case, we’ve ported your number across so it wouldn’t ‘expire’. Fingers crossed the engineer can get to the bottom of the issue for you on the 20th.

[#8]

In my phone control panel, my number is there, yes...Product: Line Only.

[#9]

Thanks for getting back to me @22martin

I've double checked this with our suppliers number porting team and I'm advised that your landline number wasn't automatically released from your previous provider's network as it should've been, so they've emailed them to release it to us. This should mean that you'll be able to receive calls as normal within the next 2 hours.

Can you let me know how it goes?

[#10]

Thank you G,

Yes, I'll let you know how this progresses. Thanks again for your informed contribution.

[#11]

No problem @22martin

Could you check if you're able to receive calls now?

[#12]

Hi G,

No, I can't make calls to my landline number and when I make a call from my landline to my mobile it still registers the alien number.

[#13]

Hi @22martin,

I'm sorry to hear that's the case. Perhaps this has been affected by the fault case we're investigating. To that end, it may be worth checking back on this once an update has come through on the fault, but if you have any additional queries or issues in the meantime then please don't hesitate to get back in touch and we'll be happy to help wherever we can.

[#14]

 @Gandalf 

Having done a splendid job for @22martin, please could I ask you to help me  also ?  I have spent hours trying to get through to Plusnet on the phone but cannot get through, so I apologise for exploiting @22martin's case, but mine is similar though in reverse.

I have been with Plusnet since the days of Force9, so over 20 years but thanks to Openreach, I have no choice but to part company.  I live in a very rural area at the end of the line, and the best broadband I can get with Plusnet is a quasi fibre service which is not to the door but to the cabinet a mile away, and the last mile is copper.  My contract is 20 Mb/s but I seldom get more than 14 Mb/s, and it has got to the point where I cannot go on like this any longer.  I need a faster, reliable broadband which does not keep dropping out because the broadband is the only possible source of television - again we have a very poor transmitter signal due to our location, so an aerial does not work.  Freesat is also a non-starter because the dish installers cannot connect to the satellite due to tall trees.  Therefore, broadband is the only solution.

I am moving to Vodafone because they have a 5G mast just a mile away from my house, and they can provide  speeds of from 300 Mbps to 1Gbps !  Openreach cannot begin to compete with that.

I have tried to sign up with Vodafone, which was fine until they went to take over the telephone number, when it all ground to a halt.  You will appreciate that, having lived in this house for 46 years with the same telephone number , we must keep our existing number because all our friends and acquaintances from the last 46 years know the number, as do many business contacts - it would be unthinkable to lose it.  (Actually it had a lot fewer digits when we arrived, and was the only house in the village which did not have a party line, because the previous owner was the doctor !)

But Vodafone advised me that they cannot take over the landline number because Plusnet have locked it and will not release it.  I cannot understand why not.  I am out of contract and paying month by month.  There is no reason why Plusnet should retain the number if I leave.  I have escalated this even directly to the Connections Team at Vodafone, who have confirmed that they are powerless to do anything.  They said that they are partners with BT and therefore would have no problem taking over the line with BT, but they have no partnership with Plusnet and cannot do anything about it without Plusnet's agreement.

Vodafone have recommended that I should escalate this to Ofcom because it appears to be against competition laws.  I do not want to have to do that, but it appears that if I want to keep my telephone number which has been mine for nearly 50 years, I am locked in to Plusnet, of which I was not aware when I joined back in the late 1990's.

I am therefore hoping that you may be able to help me resolve this.  I appreciate that my leaving Plusnet after all these years is not what you want to hear, but if Plusnet could match Vodaphone service offering, I would happily stay.  The culprit is of course Openreach whose infrastructure is diabolical.  Since the storms two weeks ago, the copper cable has been lying on the verge in our lane after it was blown down from the pole.  Several neighbours have reported it but nothing has been done, and it is bound to be impacting our broadband service even further - it was bad enough before but now it is hopeless.

Please can you help me in any way to resolve this rather than having to open a case with Ofcom ?

Many thanks.

[#15]

Thanks for your time on the phone @shermans it was good to speak with you!

 I'm really sorry to see Vodafone are having issues importing your landline number.

As discussed I'm glad I was able to get to the bottom of the problem for you and if you ask them to try placing the order again tomorrow, their number port should hopefully go through fine then. 

I've also raised a damage report to Openreach for an engineer to investigate the broken cable from the pole. I'd expect an engineer to be assigned within 24 hours and I'll update you Here when I know more.