Will I get a new phone number when I move home?

[ScenicPaul]

We're hoping to move house in the next couple of months to another part of England and wondered what will happen about getting our landline phone reconnected. I spoke to someone at Virgin (in India I assume) who said that we will keep our current phone number even though we'll be living in another part of the country which seems a bit odd. Please could you advise what will happen to our phone. Thanks.

[Roger_Gooner]

You have to request that your number be ported to your new service. This usually works well, but what is important is that you leave it to VM to manage and do not under any circumstances contact your current provider about your move.

[ScenicPaul]

Ok thanks. Our phone provider is currently Virgin.

[Kath_P]

Hi ScenicPaul,

Thanks for taking the time to contact us via the Community. It's lovely having you on board with us in the Forums. ⭐

In terms of porting your number across, as you've confirmed you're already a Virgin Media customer, then moving your services to your new home will not be an issue as long as we offer a service to that address. We'll move the current contract term, pricing and details over - which includes your landline number. 

If you decide to accept a new promotional discount, this can sometimes mean a new account is set up so porting your number across will not be possible. When arranging your move with the Movers Team, just make them aware you're wanting to keep your landline number and they can sort the rest out for you 😊

Let us know if you have any further queries or questions. 

Thanks,

[nodrogd]

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@ScenicPaul wrote:

We're hoping to move house in the next couple of months to another part of England and wondered what will happen about getting our landline phone reconnected. I spoke to someone at Virgin (in India I assume) who said that we will keep our current phone number even though we'll be living in another part of the country which seems a bit odd. Please could you advise what will happen to our phone. Thanks.

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If you are moving to an area covered by a different STD code, No, you cannot take a geographic landline number with you, as it is routed to a local exchange. The only way to keep a geographic number at present is to port to a VoIP provider. VMs lines are hub connected, but still currently use their local exchanges.

[Roger_Gooner]

I won't have thought that this restriction applies to VoIP numbers which have no concept of exchanges. Indeed when I get migrated to VoIP I certainly expect to have to dial full numbers and not just local numbers within my area code.

[nodrogd]

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@Roger_Gooner wrote:

I won't have thought that this restriction applies to VoIP numbers which have no concept of exchanges. Indeed when I get migrated to VoIP I certainly expect to have to dial full numbers and not just local numbers within my area code.

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I was with Vonage for a while & ported my 01 number. I could still dial local numbers on my exchange without dialling the STD code. I suppose it depends on the way the operator sets the system up.

[Barstaff]

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@nodrogd wrote:

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@Roger_Gooner wrote:

I won't have thought that this restriction applies to VoIP numbers which have no concept of exchanges. Indeed when I get migrated to VoIP I certainly expect to have to dial full numbers and not just local numbers within my area code.

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I was with Vonage for a while & ported my 01 number. I could still dial local numbers on my exchange without dialling the STD code. I suppose it depends on the way the operator sets the system up.

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That does make sense, I used to have a Vonage account, but it was an 0203 (non geographic) number, and hence had no concept of ‘local numbers’.* In theory, VoIP systems don’t; but there is nothing to stop a provider; after all they know where you live, having a system which prepends an STD code if you only dial a short code.

* Never needed to use it, but if I were to move whilst being a Vonage customer, I simply move, connect the ATA to whatever internet connection I might have at the new address, and my phone number moves with me and still works
And although I do know how it all works in the background, is really quite clever!

[Roger_Gooner]

My belief is that even if a VoIP provider enables local dialling this may not last much longer. It's extra work to maintain this system, and for what purpose? We are accustomed as mobile users to dialling full numbers and if you've got a number you need to call more than once from your landline you can store it on most handsets.