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Moving offices - taking my BT business line to another exhange

anand
Member

So there I was thinking porting my BT Business line to another office would be straightforward - I mean we do live in the 21st century afterall.  But thats where I was mistaken.

 

According to BT, each number is allocated to an exchange and cannot be taken to another one.  They can provide 2 options:

 

- a messaging service on the original line telling people that the number has changed (£11+VAT pm)

- full divert service (1yr contract, £50 connection fee, £39+VAT pm)

 

Is there any other way this can be done?  The costs seem outrageous!  I had wrongly assumed that I would incur a moving fee and thats all!

8 REPLIES 8

Fiona
Grand Guru

Hi

 

I am afraid you cannot move a geographical number (With an area dialling code) from one exchange to another exchange. It may help if you read the following post.

 

'Numbers are used to route calls but also to determine the charge. Recognising where a number is located helps anyone making a call estimate the likely associated call charges when dialling it from their location. Braking the link between actual physical geographical location and the charge raised would remove this useful information from numbers. Also, people sometimes like to do business with local suppliers and the number helps them recognise where the alternatives they may have to choose from are located.'

 

The area code and sub code tell you where the area and exchange area are, and cannot be moved to another area or exchange area.

 

If the number is business critical then you can use wither Remote Call forwarding which automatically forwards calls to your new number, or caller Redirect which tells people that call the number to call your new number. The benefit of caller redirect is it gives your customers your new number so they would use it the next time they call, you would only then need to use caller redirect until all your advertising is updated with the new number.

 

You could also look at getting a non geographic number such as an 0844 number or 0845 number. This is not fixed to an exchange and can move as your business moves, meaning you would not need to change your advertised number.

 

I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

 

Kind Regards

 

Fiona

BT Business Forum Moderator



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janeinuk
Member

We just moved our business around the corner and it put us on another exchange dispite it being only a few hundred yards away.  We decided it was worth the money to pay for the divert service.  On the first day last week, it worked to plan, but day 2 it stopped.  Now I am being told we can't have the divert "for legal reasons"!!!!  We have already gone to the expensive of new marketing materials with the new address and original phone number.  All I want is the remote call forwarding, and can't get it.  As I was wrongly informed, I would like to take my business elsewhere.

janeinuk
Member

In regards to my post just now, I have put in an official complaint to Ofcom about not being allowed to have the diversion now that the move has taken place, despite being told before the move that I could.

 

 

SeanC
Master User

Hello

 

Not sure if this would work or be fully reliable but you can contact the Bt local business and see if they can be ported to voip or hosted voip (info here) www.bt.com/business/broadbandvoice the service is run over your broadband connection so quality and reliablity all depends on bb connection speed.

 

You can go here http://www.btlocalbusiness.co.uk/ to get your btlb telephone number.

 

SC

chrisbtlbnewcas
BT Partner
BT Partner

If you put the ported number on a divert to the main office telephone number, broadband speed shouldn't come into it as the call should be diverted within the network.

 

To use this as an alternative to RCF, you have to work out the maximum number of simultaneous inbound calls you would normally expect to receive and then you would need to have as many VoIP lines as there are simultaneous calls (this is because only one call can be diverted by one line at any time).

 

Lets say that you normally have 3 simultaneous inbound calls. Your old number can be ported onto BT's VoiP service as a MADN (like a hunt group number). Call one is directed to VoIP line one which is diverted to the main number. Call two is then presented to VoIP line two, also on a divert to the main number and so on. If a fourth simultaneous call comes in, you could have a fourth VoIP line diverting to a messaging service or secondary location which makes this a more intelligent solution compared to RCF.

 

At £5pm per VoIP line and potentially free diverted calls (with One Plan Plus), this could also prove to be a much cheaper option than RCF.

 

I'd be interested to know why you were told you could not have RCF. Is it because you are trading under another company name since your move?

BT Local Business Newcastle

steve1
Member

can i move my business line from my old offices in pontypool to another office also in pontypool.

They both have np4 post codes and start with 01495

Denise1967
Member

We have been told that the only way to move a telephone number which is on another exchange to ring through on our telephone system is to have a broadband connection and push the number through the cloud.  We have received the router and everything that it is telling us is that it rings a seperate telephone or rings through a PC - this is not what we wanted and this is not how it was explained to us.  Is this the correct option?  Or have we been told the wrong thing?  trying to get an answer from BT is more than difficult !

HowsThat
Power User

Hi Denise,

 

The short answer is you can have your old number do whatever you want.  How would you like inbound and outbound calls to work/flow?

 

If you prefer please Private Message me with your phone number and I can call you to discuss.

 

Stuart