topic Re: Pocket Landline not working and want to port in Mobile Services

Pocket Landline not working and want to port

Wits-End — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 18:36:27 GMT

Is there anyone out there who can advise. I have had an EE pocket Landline for 15 years +. It is my business's main publicly listed number and is on all our stationery, signage, business cards, websites, etc. Currently it is not working (ringing through) and I'm frankly getting an indifferent response from EE with zero interest or urgency. I have a current technical issue open with them but we're 36+ hours in with no contact or feedback.

With EE's lack of interest and support of their now discontinued Pocket Landline product I have asked to port the number away from EE. However they are saying that it is tied to my mobile number and can't be ported separately. However, if I try and port my mobile number to a different provider the Landline number will be lost and returned to the Range Holder after 30 days. The EE representative was quite clear when I tried to negotiate a move. He basically said that if you move you will lose your landline number and the landline cannot be untied from my mobile number so basically you are tied to EE forever if you want to keep both of the numbers. He was quite open in saying this is common to all historic EE Pocket Landline customers and you are just going to have to live with it, stating most customers keep paying as its cheaper than losing the numbers and the admin that would involve!!

Is there anyone out there who has had similar issues and indeed anyone who has manage to wrestle control of their Pocket Landline number from EE? If so what's the process? Also from any Legal Beagle; is it even legal for EE to not facilitate the porting of a number (namely the Pocket Landline?) I've found mention of something called OFCOM's "General Condition G3. Does this apply?

Any response, advice or guidance would be gratefully received.

Re: Pocket Landline not working and want to port

bristolian — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:05:35 GMT

That product is a bl*st from the past!

As far as process is concerned, your primary subscription is your mobile number - with additional products, pocket landline very likely included - added on.

So some of what you've been advised, makes absolute sense. I would suspect porting requirements apply to your 07xxx number.

Re: Pocket Landline not working and want to port

Wits-End — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 15:36:58 GMT

Again, please....is there anyone out there who has successfully managed to get control of their Pocket Landline number? This has been my business's anchor number for more than 15 years. It's not working and EE are telling me there is no way of porting this number away from them!!!

Re: Pocket Landline not working and want to port

Katie_B — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 18:01:47 GMT

Hi @Wits-End.

I understand how important this number must be for your business after 15 years.

I've checked our internal systems and cannot find anything to say that Pocket Landline numbers can be ported out. I can only advise speaking with our small business customer support team if you need to discuss it further

Katie

Re: Pocket Landline not working and want to port

Wits-End — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 18:14:30 GMT

Hi Katie,

Thanks for your response.

Please can you advise how to contact the small business team? I have called 150 countless times and just get passed around with no one wanting to try and resolve my issue. The latest tactic is so say they will speak to someone and call back in or at a given time and then not call at all. If I can get to speak to someone who can control the number I have alternative providers willing to manually port the number over.

Thanks in advance for any help.
Sent from my iPhone

Re: Pocket Landline not working and want to port

Katie_B — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 08:00:27 GMT

Morning @Wits-End.

Thanks so much for getting back to me.

Ways to contact our Small Business team can be found on this page.

Hope this helps,

Katie

Re: Pocket Landline not working and want to port

Wits-End — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 16:45:27 GMT

OK, I'm posting this as a resource for anyone who finds themselves in my position of wanting to port their Pocket Landline away from EE and is being told it isn't possible. The good news is it IS and I've now managed it despite having recorded evidence from EE telling me it is not possible.

I used a VOIP provider that specialises in manual ports, (I won't name them in case it leads to this post being removed but try an internet search.)

Importantly, your new provider DOES NOT need a Porting reference to take to EE. It is a pocket Landline and does not require one. My initial ports failed because they were approaching it as an EE owned number but it was actually a BT number but you are still dealing with and porting away from EE. It might be useful also to know who ultimately your numbers "Range Holder" is. I found this out through my conversations with OFCOM.

For the record, before getting my Business Landline number of over 15 years away from EE it had been out of service for over 3 weeks. They have credited me this months charge but when I asked about any compensation (which is around £10 a day on conventional number) their call handler promised me he'd look into it and call me the next day. Suffice to say no call back or follow-up.

It is my intention now to open an OFCOM dispute as without my peseverence I would have at best been wed to EE forever or at worst lost my businesses anchor telephone number that it's had since it's formation.

In summary despite EE's repeated (and recorded) insistence that a Pocket Landline cannot be ported away and your only option is to continue to contract with them, it is not the case and those statements are completely untrue and misleading.

Good luck to anyone following me down this road.