Number Porting from a Virtual Telephone Company

[camelchops]

Individuals and businesses have a right under a European directive to have both their mobile and their landline numbers ported over to a new telecoms supplier or to a new location when they change address, even outside their area (if to a VOIP telecoms supplier). So if I'm with say Virgin Media and I want to join BT I can bring my number with me.

But what if my existing telecoms supplier has allocated me a virtual number on my account - that is one that is not necessarily in my location but every call made to it is forwarded to me by them wherever I am. 

Can this telecoms supplier still be forced to port that virtual number to me if I decide to switch to BT?

[markp]

Hi camelchops,

All numbers are meant to be portable but we know in reality this is not always the cases more difficult than others, there is two possible barriers.

1. Service establishment – basically a ‘porting agreement’ between suppliers. This needs to be in place before a port can happen. If one is already in place it is straight forward, but it takes a minimum of 55 working days if not already in place. We do have service establishment with most of the ‘big players’ but there’s new smaller companies coming into the market particularly in the VOIP/IPEX arena
2. VOIP/IPEX – we do have some issues in these areas. Particularly if the number has been ‘sub-ported’. that means taken from the original range holder, moved to another platform and now the customer wishes to move it again.

Unfortunately there isn’t a definitive answer. They should all be portable but there are exceptions and each case needs to be checked on its individual circumstances

Hope this helps

Mark