UK based question - Can you transfer BT DDI numbers to a SIP provider?

What you want to do is to port your numbers. I did a quick google search (always te first place to start) for 'uk phone number porting' and came up with the following links from Ofcom. Although I have never had to do it, the simple answer is Yes - you can move your numbers from one provider to another. It is your number rather than BT's.

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

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

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

The simple way is to pick your ITSP / Voip provider and ask then how much they will charge you to port the numbers from BT to their service. They will then terminate the numbers on their equipment and route incoming calls to those numbers via a sip or IAX2 trunk to your asterisk server. If you are not happy you can always port the numbers away to another ITSP for yet another fee. I am not recommending that but it demonstrates the process. Each time you will have to pay a fee for the porting and it will take a few days.

I have never tried to port a number, but use gradwell for my own voip trunks. http://www.gradwell.net/voip/porting/ gives their description of the process and their charges. You also need to ask the provider what their ongoing costs will be. I think you will find that any Voip provider will port numbers for you.

Hi Kerry,

We have ported many numbers and as been mentioned earlier your choosen provider will do this for you once the forms have been filled in. Note however that it can be very difficult if your current provider is not BT as we had one customer who we had to port first back to BT then onto us, which was a bit of a nightmare for the user, so just beware. Normal port takes 10-14 days.

Also if you have a DDI range you'll have to port them all, as BT will not port part of a range.

Try to ensure that whoever you pick has a peer agreement with your broadband provider as this will minimize any quality issues and if you have any are quickly traceable.

Hope this helps.

Regards
Paul

Porting from BT - no problem!
We do it all the time

We can also port NTL, Telewest & Virgin numbers too!

In order to port you need to have a SIP trunk service up and running from us first, so that there is something to port to.
Also, its worth noting that you can only port an entire block - you cant pick just one number out of a block of 10 and leave the rest in place with your existing provider. However if you have 2x blocks of 10, you can port 1 block and leave the other on your ISDN.
Prices for DDI numbers are usually about 1/2 of what you are paying now, 50p per number per month with us.

BT normally take 7-10 days to complete a port request, they arent the quickest people in the world to deal with!

If you want any more info, just get in touch!