Moving phone from Sky impossible!

[websi7]

Having paid my deposit to Virgin I was promised I could port my phone number which is used for a variety of organisations I run or work for.

I am now told SKY will NOT release my phone number as they own it and the line in some deal with BT which seems to lock me in FOR EVER with Sky

Since it will cost me at least £10,000 in reprinting if I had a New number it seems very unfair I cannot do a simple think like move number.

Is there a special department or number I can ring or a special letter I can write which will unlock this dilemma - I do not want to be locked into Sky forever with a 1mb broadband speed, pic/sound out of sync, and lost pic in poor weather (let alone bad) etc etc

[jungleguy]

Hi there,

unfortunately there is no number porting agreement between Sky and Virgin.

Just take TV and BB with VM, I think you could port the number to BT (become a BT cust for phone only) then later port it to VM.

[websi7]

Good thinking, assuming you can take the phone to BT which Virgin say you cannot (but maybe biased as they do not want you going from Sky to BT)

I am placing an order to BT to do that (hopefully), and will need to co-incide with the Virgin install of TV and Broadband - and when that is done porting BT to Virgin should be a breeze.

[m419]

Having paid my deposit to Virgin I was promised I could port my phone number which is used for a variety of organisations I run or work for.

I am now told SKY will NOT release my phone number as they own it and the line in some deal with BT which seems to lock me in FOR EVER with Sky

Since it will cost me at least £10,000 in reprinting if I had a New number it seems very unfair I cannot do a simple think like move number.

Is there a special department or number I can ring or a special letter I can write which will unlock this dilemma - I do not want to be locked into Sky forever with a 1mb broadband speed, pic/sound out of sync, and lost pic in poor weather (let alone bad) etc etc

I would contact Ofcom and let them know of your situation and advise you what to do,they will also make a note of this particular issue and look at how to resolve it over time.

[Kymmy]

Then keep the sky line, you don't need a phone line for VM usage... fine it'll cost you a bit more but only about 1% of the printing costs..

[m419]

Then keep the sky line, you don't need a phone line for VM usage... fine it'll cost you a bit more but only about 1% of the printing costs..

Erm,isn't Sky Talk and Sky Broadband for Sky TV customers only?

So when you cancel Sky TV the others have to go as well.

Apart from that it sounds like you shouldn't be even using Sky Talk, its for residential/personal use, business customers are supposed to use Easynet.

[GordonD]

Erm,isn't Sky Talk and Sky Broadband for Sky TV customers only?

So when you cancel Sky TV the others have to go as well.

Apart from that it sounds like you shouldn't be even using Sky Talk, its for residential/personal use, business customers are supposed to use Easynet.

Yes, but you can transfer sky talk/line rental to back to BT, it is in effect a BT line anyway (Openreach would come out for line faults), this will be the best option and you keep your existing number, if you are ditching sky TV also.

[rogerdraig]

as far as i am aware they are still suposed to port home numbers just like mobile see

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/gc18review/statement/

and here

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/ioi/numbers/num_port_info/

[v0id]

I am placing an order to BT to do that (hopefully), and will need to co-incide with the Virgin install of TV and Broadband - and when that is done porting BT to Virgin should be a breeze.

Presumably once you port the number to BT, you start a 12 month contract with them.
Also the reason why your number can't be ported from sky to Virgin may be that you are still in cointract with Sky. If that's the case, I doubt you'll even be able to port it to anyone ATM

[Ben B]

You can get 30 day contracts with BT

[dave_dph]

You can get 30 day contracts with BT

Not to my knowledge. They used to offer three month contracts for reconnections but this changed a few years back. 12 or 18 months for line rental are their norm now.

Where do you get 30 days from?

[PeteTheMusicGuy]

You can get 30 day contracts with BT


Not that I know of either

[saabmania2]

Wasn't the 30 day contract with o2 mobiles?? i seem to remember something about 30 day contracts in an o2 advert, but i have never seen anything for BT

[AntiSilence]

Then keep the sky line, you don't need a phone line for VM usage...

You have to take a VM phone line with the VM TV but not broadband.

[Kymmy]

You have to take a VM phone line with the VM TV but not broadband.

Nope, you can get TV on it's own without the phone line (all the packages now have prices with and without phone lines (for example XL is £23 with a phone line or £29 without)

[AntiSilence]

Nope, you can get TV on it's own without the phone line (all the packages now have prices with and without phone lines (for example XL is £23 with a phone line or £29 without)

Ah... When I last checked it was that you could get the BB without a phone line but not the TV. I sit corrected :)

[m419]

Ah... When I last checked it was that you could get the BB without a phone line but not the TV. I sit corrected :)

Nope! You can get TV,Broadband and phone as single products. They don't like you to know that because they want you to take out all 3 services.

Telephone: Some people who want to avoid BT because of non-payment or who do not want to pay a installation fee and who just want a phone line and don't need broadband can take out 'telephone only' for £30 connection fee. Talk Weekends is not available to new telephone only customers.

TV: TV packages are more expensive without telephone and this has been tradition with Cable since launch.

Broadband: Expensive as a single product,might as well take all 3!

---------- Post added at 17:18 ---------- Previous post was at 17:14 ----------

You can get 30 day contracts with BT

No you cannot unless you don't mind paying early contract penalty charges.

Traditionally contracts lasted 3 months,then when Ofcom allowed us to join phone companies without going through BT, that changed.

[AntiSilence]

Nope! You can get TV,Broadband and phone as single products. They don't like you to know that because they want you to take out all 3 services.

Yeah, when I last checked the website a while back I was sure it said you had to get a phone line with a TV package but I probably misread it lol.

I've always had all 3 from ntl/VM since back in 1999 when I had analogue TV lol (but back then, it was just changing to ntl from Diamond Cable).

[Malovern]

I have had the exact same issue as the OP.

I was originally with Sky and took out a deal with VM. I rang up today to check the status of the number port only to be told that nothing had been done as "sky refuses to give us the numbers".

Sensing this as rubbish and knowing OFCOMS stance on this I rang sky and low and behold was told "we own the number and no we will not release it" stance.

One quick call to OFCOM confirmed my suspicions that this is incorrect as under General Regulation 18 the Losing provider MUST release the number if asked by the winning provider (in this case VM).

I rang Sky back and let them know and was on hold for a while until it was confirmed that indeed, I was given the wrong information.


Back to VM with this news but to my dismay, they still held that they had no porting contract with Sky and that a recent trial with Sky was "unsuccessful" and thus they would not do anything.

ARRRRGGGHHH!!!

Back to OFCOM, who added to my dismay by adding that the regulations ONLY apply to the losing provider - in other words VM is under NO OBLIGATION to take a number from a losing provider even if you request it.

So in short, SKY --> VM = Forget it. I am going to formally complain to Sky, VM and OFCOM over this but do not expect any results. VM should, according to OFCOM - file a formal complain to OFCOM if Sky are being awkward but the fact that the winning provider is under no obligation leaves a rather large hole in terms of the consumer.

[websi7]

Good lick with Sky/VM

I have switch to VM from Sky and currently have a temp number with VM pending Sky switching on 18th June so I can keep the same number.

We live in hope - I was told such a move was impossible but they seem to have sorted it among themselves without OFCOM having a say.

[Malovern]

I am loathe to speak to anyone in VM as they all sing from the same sheet - ie their internal VM website.

This needs a response from higher up in VM as to why they are having so called "issues" and if they have formally registered a complaint with OFCOM.

The call centre staff are clueless.

[Ben B]

Hi Malovern and :welcome: to CF,

Have you tried posting on the Virgin Media forum cause they have some good support staff on there that may be able to help you and give you the correct information regarding this http://community.virginmedia.com

Ben :)

[BenMcr]

As far as I know at the moment there is no way to transfer some numbers from Sky to Virgin as there is no porting agreement for them (I think it's directly Sky issued numbers rather than BT > Sky numbers)

However this is going to be corrected on the 1st July and from that point all Sky number transfers arranged after that date will go through same as any other company.

[Malovern]

Thanks for the replies. Our number came from BT to Sky. If after speaking to Sky and their Dept who deals with Ofcom issues I cannot understand why VM is having difficulties.

Very frustrating as we will lose our number.

[m419]

Most BT exchanges and some Virgin Media franchises support Caller Re-direction which is a recorded message telling the caller the number you want your calls directed to.

Shame they can't even offer that!

[ma_guinea]

I've just cancelled my sky triple package in favour of moving to VM, and I've just had Sky tell me that apparently if i move to VM, then unless I move back to sky in the future, i'd have to pay BT to reconnect my line as sky own it or something?

Truth or B*****ks?

[Sirius]

I've just cancelled my sky triple package in favour of moving to VM, and I've just had Sky tell me that apparently if i move to VM, then unless I move back to sky in the future, i'd have to pay BT to reconnect my line as sky own it or something?

Truth or B*****ks?

Sounds like typical retentions bull plop to me. :)

[weesteev]

Sounds like typical retentions bull plop to me. :)

Actually, this would be correct. If the Sky product was a complete Unbundled service including Sky home phone then the line would be disconnected from BT's network and a reconnection charge would apply if the customer wanted to sign up with anyone else apart from Sky.

This has been a major stumbling block for ADSL switching between different LLU providers for some time now and shows no sign of going away.

[Ignitionnet]

Yep nonsense, Sky rent your line they don't own it. When you leave Sky they don't keep paying BT for your line and a cease should be placed on their rental of it. You can get it reconnected to the BT network free of charge.

The only hair-raising bit is going from a fully unbundled MPF service to another service directly, even this is doable though so long as the receiver of the line uses Openreach's Equivalence Management Platform. MPF<>MPF migration was an issue that was sorted fairly recently - see http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/products/llu/mpfsmpf/downloads/Openreach_MPF_and_SMPF_EMP_Product_Description_Iss ue_9.%200.doc