No written notification was sent to our small business about the need to switch over to the NBN. Building management only advised us that our copper lines would be shortly switched off so we quickly organised to move across.
We were using 4 landlines: our main business number, a fax line, a secondary phone number and a separate landline for Internet. These were handled by Provider A, a wholesale customer of Telstra. Our internet service and 2 voip lines were handled by Provider B. Unbeknown to us, Provider B had moved across to Optus as a wholesale customer.
We signed up for the NBN with Provider B (not knowing about the switch to Optus) because we were told they could port all our numbers across to the NBN.
Provider A contacted us to advise of the impending disconnection of our landlines, however, no date for disconnection was offered by them so it was assumed this was part of the NBN rollout and would be taken care of as part of moving across to the NBN.
We were advised to cancel all call hunt groups on our phone numbers in preparation for the move across.
Our order for the NBN with Provider B was placed on 14 August 2016. Provider B requested porting of our numbers. This was rejected because somehow our fax line was disconnected when the call hunt was cancelled.
Provider B made a second request, this time about our main and secondary lines only. Unfortunately, before this request could be processed, the pending disconnection advised by Provider A had taken effect so the second porting request was also rejected.
Our business had no telephone or internet services between the disconnection and the NBN installation for an entire week, apart from a mobile phone and a portable hotspot. For a services business that depends on communication to function, this caused great distress.
With the NBN connected on 1 September, our business now has Internet capability, but we are still without our main business phone number. We can survive without our other numbers, but our main number is crucial to our business.
Unfortunately, Provider A is not prepared to request reactivation of our numbers unless we cancel our NBN contract with Provider B and sign up for the NBN with Provider A. Provider B tells they can do nothing to retrieve our numbers because they are still under the control of Provider A.
A search for our numbers does not indicate any current ROU. It is our understanding that our numbers have gone into a quarantine pool.
Any suggestions on how we can have our numbers reactivated and ported across to the NBN will be much appreciated.