The company says the portability is seamless, leads to cost reductions and a better, more personal service and avoids any change of existing letterhead stationery formerly involving changes to VoIP.
Commenting on this new service, Peter Gradwell, MD of Gradwell dot com Ltd, said: "For some months now we've been able to offer porting of numbers in the London area - but BT has been slow to allow porting nationwide.
“However, a substantial €40,000 investment in new Gradwell routing equipment - and our partnerships with new telecoms suppliers - has meant we can overlay a good-value VoIP service on a customer’s existing BT phone number, regardless of where he/she is located.”
Number portability is seen as a key driver to the take-up of UK VoIP services. In its recent Annual Report, ITSPA - the UK VoIP industry’s trade body - said:
“The introduction of a cost-effective, efficient, centralised approach to number portability is key to facilitating real consumer choice. ITSPA continues to lobby Ofcom - among others - to stress the importance of this for the competitiveness of the UK telecommunications market. Indeed, the National Inter-operability Consultative Committee (NICC) is now beginning to assess the viability and importance of a new approach to number portability; we hope that this will be implemented at the outset of 21CN.”