5 months to port - must be a record

Anemone

Well my long awaited number port to Blueface finally came through yesterday (27th). I originally filled out the porting request form on April 25th. So porting my number took an amazing 5 months and two days!

Blueface did everything they could to hurry it along. They even gave me a pile of free call credit to compensate me for a delay that wasn't thier fault.

The first few port attempts failed and it took quite a while to figure out why. Very little information was coming back on why the port was being rejected (and some of it was misleading). Eventually we got details, from Eircom, of the real reason why the port was being rejected. Here it is:

"We are unable to process this GNP request as a third party OAO has purchased Single Billing through Wholesale Line Rental on xxx-xxxxxx. This third party is unaware of the GNP requests against this number."

Now this didn't mean much to me at the time, but Aaron helped me to decode it. A non-Eircom telco was providing both my calls and line rental. That's what the Wholesale Line Rental above refers to. Apparently Comreg didn't have any procedure in place for Eircom and other telcos to handle ports involving said Wholesale Line Rental. So it appears to me that because Comreg havn't forced Eircom into a formal procedure for this kind of porting, they aren't going to play ball, and they might not even bother to let you know why they wont port your number.

So how did I solve this problem? I had to port my number back to Eircom (which took over a month), and then resubmit my original port request through Blueface. This brief union between my phone line and Eircom has given birth to a bill for €52 (the calls component of which is less than €1). Queue Eddie Hobbs ...

That Comreg are allowing this kind of thing to occur is a scandal. It's a barrier to competition in the phone market in Ireland, and it allows Eircom to generate a few extra quid out of a transaction that should have nothing to do with them. Number porting (of any kind) should be quick, automated, financially painless, reliable and uncomplicated. Until it is, Joe Punter is not going to bother with it. Which means that the uptake of cheaper telephony services (like VoIP) is being artificially restricted, and the coffers of the incumbent telco are being artificially supported.

I think I better go and lie down ...

fatherdougalmag

I'm going to port my number to BF but I'm with Esat. The first thing I was going to do was move back to Eircom for the move so they only have themselves to fight with instead of playing the ping-pong game between Eircom and Esat.

Cabaal

Ouch, now thats a long wait,
I'm curious have you spoken to Eircom about a refund for them wasting your time and money because they did'ent have a process in place for such a request (and still don't).

Even though it wasn't their fault its interesting to hear that blueface gave you some free credit, very nice of them indeed.

Happy to hear you finally got things sorted in the end

Anemone

I guess it's worth a try. I'll report back here if it comes to anything.

paulm17781

I have finally had my number ported. Eircom really do their best to delay ports! Aaron from Blueface was extremely helpful during this period and even compensated me for the dealy. Either way the important lesson I learned, that all I can do is pass on this information, is if you with BT, UTV or some other Eircon reseller. Go back to Eircon first it will make the whole task much easier.

paulm17781

Finally. My saga is over. When I rang up to cancel my Eircom acocunt they only asked for my account number. I wanted to say I cancelled due to high line rental. I know it would make no difference but I wanted it on record. I'm knid of worried though, I thought they'd ask name, address, DOB to confirm it was me. I'm going to cancel loads of Eircom account now.

Cabaal

paulm17781 wrote:

I'm knid of worried though, I thought they'd ask name, address, DOB to confirm it was me. I'm going to cancel loads of Eircom account now.

Yeah scary ain't it?
I noticed that about 5 years ago that all you need is a a/c number and thats it,

"account security? what account security?"

paulm17781

Cabaal wrote:

Yeah scary ain't it?
I noticed that about 5 years ago that all you need is a a/c number and thats it,

"account security? what account security?"

My line is now inactive too. I thought maybe he wasn't going to do anything.

shabbyroad

Finally did it today - signed up to blueface and got a new 01 number and on monday will be calling eircon to tell them to shove their line.

Didn't bother porting the number - only 3 or 4 clients need to know about the new number. (this is for a second line - the main line is providing dsl). Even if it was our main number I reckon for the pleasure of telling eircon to shove it I'd go to the trouble of updating anyone who needs to know.

So - if you're thinking of porting your number think about whether you really need to.

about to save a lot of money - both line rental on the second line and the 300 minutes landline included in the blueface will save pretty much 75% of our monthly phone bills.

blueface support excellent. for an extra 5 euro a month we can have another 01/geographic number and if we like that can be a fax number using their fax service.

I love it when technology works.