Moving Phone Number to new place (BT)

smr · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:54

Hi all,

Just got off the phone and asked if I could take my home phone number (also my business number) with me to my new property. We'll be moving about 5 minutes away and on a different exchange and she said it was not physically possible to.

The only alternative would be to change my adverts and ring all my customers up to tell them the new home number. I guess having the mobile number stay the same is some compensation.

IS there really no way to transfer my existing phone number to another exchange? Would have thought it could have been done by today's standards.

YouBunt2 · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:54

did you ask if it was possible to set up a redirection?

smr · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:56

YouBunt2 said:
did you ask if it was possible to set up a redirection?

I think she mentioned that but said it was chargeable. I would rather go through the hassle of calling all of my customers than be charged for a service like that really.

stoofa · 15 Oct 2009 at 12:54

I'm afraid the answer to that one is no.
We tried the same about 5 years ago when our company moved buildings.
It was to another exchange and although we were able to get the same block of numbers, the dialling code changed.

We spoke to BT and they said no.
We then spoke to a contact we had at BT and he said although it was physically possible to do they don't do it - once one person does it everyone will want to and then it all gets very messy.
He did then go on to say a rather large company had managed to take their number with them when they moved.
However they were spending serious amounts of cash with BT each month and BT also charged then numerous thousands (I believe over £10k) to have that number moved.

smr · 15 Oct 2009 at 13:33

stoofa said:
I'm afraid the answer to that one is no.
We tried the same about 5 years ago when our company moved buildings.
It was to another exchange and although we were able to get the same block of numbers, the dialling code changed.

We spoke to BT and they said no.
We then spoke to a contact we had at BT and he said although it was physically possible to do they don't do it - once one person does it everyone will want to and then it all gets very messy.
He did then go on to say a rather large company had managed to take their number with them when they moved.
However they were spending serious amounts of cash with BT each month and BT also charged then numerous thousands (I believe over £10k) to have that number moved.

Thanks, number change it is then, ah well. It's not the end of the world.

antijoke · 15 Oct 2009 at 13:38

Would you not consider a number redirection or cease number interecept? Eg "This number has changed too..."

smr · 15 Oct 2009 at 13:45

anticonscience said:
Would you not consider a number redirection or cease number interecept? Eg "This number has changed too..."

Well I'm not sure it would be worth it really, I'm only a small business and would only need to change 4 adverts in my bimonthly mags. I could ring all of my customers up again as well as I don't have thousands; it's more like 250-300.

smr · 15 Oct 2009 at 13:47

on second thoughts the cease number change might be worth considering, as long as it doesn't cost too much; I'll find out.

smr · 15 Oct 2009 at 14:03

result, cease number direction would cost 30 quid per quarter... seems very reasonable to me. Thanks for the heads up as