Porting Number TO BT

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 09, 2006 Posts: 2

Hi Guys - I hope someone can help me here.

I recently setup a new company. I agreed a lease on an office - unfortunately there was a 3 month wait before I could move in. I decided to work from home in the meantime. I live on the 01444 exchange and my office is on the 01273 exchange.

I called Vonage and asked them if I could sign up to their business tariff and if it was possible to port the number to BT at a later date. They assured me that this was possible. On that understanding I signed up.

Last week I received word from my landlord that I could move in as soon as I was ready. I set about ordering a fixed line from BT. I rang Vonage to find out how I would go about porting this number - they told me to ring BT and they would send the paperwork to Vonage directly.

I spoke with BT and unfortunately you end up speaking to a drone in a call centre - they were unsure whether I would be able to port this number across.

I am meeting a client next week and I needed to get business cards printed. I rang Vonage on Monday this week and asked them for more details. They assured me that there would be no problem porting my number to BT. The agent I spoke with even put me on hold before checking with another member of staff and assured me that this had happened a number of times before and that there would definitely be no problem porting the number across. I even informed him that I was getting stationary printed and that I needed to be sure I could keep my number.

I got a call from BT today who have told me that I can't port the number as it is a virtual number and not a static line.

I rang Vonage to clarify this and got a member of staff who identified himself as a member of the management team. He has given me his name and ID number. He told me it was not a virtual number. I asked him if it was a static line and he told me it was definitely a static line.

I asked the Vonage operator what a static line was and he told me he did not know what that meant. This has not left me with any confidence. I asked to speak to a manager and he told me he was the highest level of escalation and that he didn't know why I had come through to him at all.

I really need to hang on to my number - does anyone know if this is possible? If this is not possible - who can I contact at Vonage to escalate this - I certainly feel they should cover the cost of the stationary I have purchased.

HELP!!!

Posts: 7 · Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2006 1:58 pm Post subject:

I'm sorry to say that I believe you are stuck - from what I understand, at this point in time, you cannot port your number from Vonage to BT (or any other UK network operator).

You can always permanently divert your vonage number to your new BT number and just use your vonage line for outgoing calls.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 09, 2006 Posts: 2

I don't want to use Vonage for outgoing calls as the call quality is far too variable for business critical calls.

Posts: 120 · Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 3:17 pm Post subject: number porting

Hello, I worked for a well known telecomms operator who regularly ported in and out with BT, BT will only port to certain operators that they have strict agreements with, and unfortunately Vonage is not one of them.
BT will only allow porting to Cable companies, e.g ntl: Telewest and maybe a handful of what they called Fixed line licensed operators.
Vonage are good, but VOIP providers just do not yet have the clout in the UK. I suggest you permanently divert by using the simulring feature wih Vonage.
I hope this helps!

Regards

Graeme.