Forum Discussion

carp_brother's avatar
carp_brother
Tuning in
9 months ago
Solved

Clear and meaningful process flow porting Landline either 'to' or 'from Virgin Media

Hi all I've been a customer of VirginMedia for almost 20 years, however the plans offered are not as applicable to our current lifestyle. Smart TVs with their own apps (and our own independent subsc...
  • Adduxi's avatar
    Adduxi
    9 months ago

    When I ported from BT to Sipgate, I filled in some Sipgate supplied forms and they did the transfer.  Note however once ported, the BT line was ceased.  I imagine that would be simliar to VM, except VM will not make things easy depending on your current contract.  If you have a package that includes the phone, I imagine it will be difficult to do, as VM will see this as a contract change that may put you into another 18 month "new" contract.  It may be easier just to cancel VM at the time of porting?

goslow's avatar
goslow
Alessandro Volta
9 months ago

AIUI, the OTS proposal is in another delay until Sept 2024

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2024/enforcement-programme-into-failed-implementation-of-one-touch-switch

I think the providers are supposed to be following the aims of the scheme already although the mechanisms for making it happen, as envisaged, do not seem to be running yet.

From many past topics on here, I think you are correct that your existing line with VM must be fully operational, and have no pending disconnection request on it, to be able to port it.

I no longer have a landline and do not use VOIP but some of the regulars on here have moved to a third party VOIP service for the reasons of flexibility which you have suggested.

It is supposed to be the gaining provider who leads the porting process and deals with any/all issues with the porting.

Have you checked who owns your landline number? Is it VM? You can check here

https://portal.aql.com/telecoms/network_lookup.php

In the 'gone wrong' number ports described on here, the customer's phone number has typically been ported before to VM (so another provider actually 'owns' the number). If something goes wrong with the port, and the number becomes 'lost', it goes back to the range holder of the number. There are supposed to be 'rescue' procedures in place for a lost number during porting under OTS but implementing them seems to be erratic in the topics described on here.

Mostly porting issues on here happen when VM is gaining a number (and the problems there typically involve the customer cancelling their existing service before the number has ported and/or VM delaying starting the new service and/or the range holder of the number being a third party).

  • carp_brother's avatar
    carp_brother
    Tuning in
    9 months ago

    Looks like it's owned by them.. Only need to make the call to VM to either request cancellation after calling up new VOIP provider and FTTP provider, or stick with VM and not change but only for the right price...  Thank you everyone for the good responses.. Community Fibre seem to be our preferred internet provider next month if VM can't come up with anything. I'm seeing more one stars on TrustPilot about VM than I am with Community Fibre.  CF seem to offer a faster (on paper) deal with symmetric speeds as opposed to 90/10 offered by VM at a much more favourable rate. I feel like we don't even need any physical phone provider any more, just stick our number online as an independant VOIP. CF are adding £10 per month for the priviledge and only really need it for incoming calls.

    • goslow's avatar
      goslow
      Alessandro Volta
      9 months ago
      carp_brother wrote:

      Looks like it's owned by them.. <snip>

      Usual advice on here, when moving to a new service, is to keep the existing service running and overlap where possible if that is feasible and affordable to you. That way you avoid being cut off with no connection if there is a delay in installation and you have your 14 day cooling off period with the new service to try it while still having VM to fall back on if the new service is no good.

      I had the same sense of trepidation when moving from VM (20 year customer) to BT FTTP a couple of years ago as the BT FTTP was a new and unknown quantity in the area. As it turned out the BT service has been excellent (far more reliable than VM ever was, hasn't skipped a beat in 2 years and has very low latency). No billing or admin issues with BT and I have not needed to contact them for support.

      My past experiences with Openreach/BT are that they are equally as capable as VM for spectacular levels of chaos and confusion but I think that because all of this fibre infrastructure is brand new, the technical issues have simply not been there.