Non-motoring > Workaround for Mobile number porting? Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Bobby Replies: 26

 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Bobby
Wife is with EE and contract is due up.
She can get a better deal by taking a new contract out with mobiles.co.uk on EE than EE will offer her on an upgrade.
However EE wont allow porting of the number between EE accounts unless you upgrade.

Anyone experienced this and have a workaround? I was thinking get a PAYG SIM with another company, port it there and then port it back but not sure how quickly that could be done?

Alternatively she might just need to send a text to all contacts with her new number !

Any clever ideas?
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - No FM2R
I guess it depends on how much of a better deal it is if you move, how many contacts she has etc. etc....

However, it is down to browbeating EE or using an intermediate SIM. It takes about a day to get a number transferred, so I guess you could get it done with a two or three day hiatus.

Personally I might think it was worthwhile just texting all the contacts with the new number, but then hanging on to the old phone number for a month just to trap any calls that still come through.

You could also change the voicemail message to direct people to the new number although then marketeers would get the new number also..
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Bobby
cheers - some googling suggests that it is possible to get a PAYG SIM that's not EE - port number to there and then port it back. Not quite sure the time limits in how long need to be with second company.

Its not a business phone so should theoretically be easy to just text new number to everyone and as she will have both contracts running concurrently for 2 weeks then your suggestion of trapping any other calls might just work out perfectly!
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Manatee
I've been going through this too. In the end it has resolved itself as I found a third party vendor offering the upgrade at a much lower price. It was Amazon actually, and the network is O2.

The O2 upgrade for the phone and contract I want is £0.00 upfront, and 24 x £41.00

Through Amazon it was £75.00 upfront, and £28.00 a month. A difference of £237 over 2 years.

Amazon only sells O2 upgrades, but have a look at www.mobiles.co.uk/ if you haven't.

It is owned or at least run by Carphone Warehouse AFAIK. They weren't that much cheapr for my phone and contract, but they were much cheaper than O2 on some other phones for the O2 upgrade.

The Amazon deal is so much cheaper I wonder if they have cocked up. It is currently showing as 'Arriving today' and 'Not yet dispatched' which is interesting! Maybe it will come by drone...
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Bobby
Its actually mobiles.co.uk we are going thru.

Iphone SE 64GB, £25 upfront, £25.99 a month for 1000 mins, 2gb data and u/l texts.

EE Upgrades couldn't get near it - they offered a 16GB phone and £50 upfront.
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Manatee
I assume you have checked the upgrade option on mobiles.co.uk?

If so then get a PAC, activate say a giffgaff SIM and port the number, take out the new EE contract then get a PAC from giffgaff and port the old number again to the new phone/SIM.
Last edited by: Manatee on Thu 5 May 16 at 12:03
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Bobby
cheers - yeah upgrade was much dearer.

Looking to see which company gives the cheapest SIM PAYG just now.....
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - zippy
The pay-as-you go trick works well.

Buy a cheap phone or just a sim card if you already have one - for a different network.

Get your number ported to it then get your number ported to the new phone - there is usually a couple of days lag overall.

Eldest had to do it a while back and got EE's fraud department call up asking why her number was being ported around, a quick explanation resolved matters.
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Manatee
The Amazon deal on the O2 upgrade may well be going belly up.

A message appeared in "order details" -

Carrier Status: Order On Hold
There was an issue with your order. Please call Amazon Wireless Customer Service at at your earliest convenience or your order will automatically be cancelled on .

Just like that, no date or number. I contacted Amazon and spoke to a CSR, who says to wait until tomorrow...

In the normal course, I would say things could stick on a credit check; but as I have not moved in 15 years I wouldn't expect a hold up with that.

If this falls over (Sony Z5 Premium) I'll go for a Nexus 6P 64GB via mobiles.co.uk at a similar overall cost and boycott Amazon for a bit in a fit of pique I expect!

I would hope that they would stand on with the deal even if they have got their pricing wrong, but my experience of Amazon when things deviate from the path of righteousness (as defined by Amazon) has been variable.
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Fullchat
Please can someone explain what 'porting' means in layman's terms ???? :S
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - No FM2R
All phone companies are given a chunk of phone numbers by Ofcom to use. When you take out a mobile phone contract, you are given one of these numbers from their stock. Always. [obviously]

When you take your business away from old_company and take out your new contract with new_company you will be given a new phone number from new_company's stock..

However, you may wish to keep your existing phone number. So you can ask old_company to transfer it to new_company, since YOU own the number not them, and new_company will then assign it to your SIM.

This is called "porting the number".
Last edited by: No FM2R on Fri 6 May 16 at 01:04
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Bobby
bit like a personal registration without the costs..
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Manatee
>> bit like a personal registration without the costs..

And slightly more logic to it!

(says the man with two prat plates).
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Stuartli
>>This is called "porting the number".>>

Similar to getting a MAC (Migration Authorisation Code) if you wish to change ISPs, although it doesn't seem to be as important now as a new ISP will undertake the transfer.

I've had my Virgin Mobile phone number since August 2000, but Virgin proved very helpful with porting my mobile number to GiffGaff some four years ago.

GiffGaff offers advice on how to port a number and also, amongst other matters, how to Unlock other carriers' mobile phones:

www.giffgaff.com/support/sim-and-number/your-phone-number

tinyurl.com/jdjfsgf (very long URL otherwise!)
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - VxFan
>> Similar to getting a MAC (Migration Authorisation Code) if you wish to change ISPs,

Which is why it's called a PAC (Porting Authorisation Code) in phone jargon.
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Stuartli
>>Which is why it's called a PAC (Porting Authorisation Code) in phone jargon. >>

Precisely. Hence the word "similar"...:-)
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Fullchat
Thanks for that. Bit like transferring your number then :))
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Manatee
Phone now dispatched by Amazon, no indication of reason for manual review. Almost as much of a (relative) bargain as yours Bobby. The SE 64GB looks decent value anyway if you are happy with the screen size, and I reckon you have paid c. £300 for the handset in that deal.

I would have preferred to stay with Windows phone but there are too many reports of buggy behaviour with Windows 10, so Android it is for now. I also wanted a big screen and 64GB or more which narrows the field a lot. Had to order a 64GB SD card for the 32GB Sony.

Thank goodness that's over, they drive me nuts with seemingly illogical pricing - actually I think it's designed to capture the business of price sensitive people like us, while maximising profit from the people who just look at the top of the list.

I considered just continuing with the Lumia 1020, which I like, on sim-only but the battery is really flagging now. Man maths did the rest.
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - VxFan
>> The SE 64GB looks decent value anyway if you are happy with the screen size

I am, which is why I've finally replaced my old iPhone4 with an iPhone 64GB SE. I didn't want a large screen phone.

Didn't bother with any contracts though. Bought straight out from John Lewis for £439 and updated my current SIM only plan with Tesco mobile. Was previously paying £12.50 a month, but now it's £11 a month. My previous allowance was 500 mins, 5000 txts and 1GB of data. It's now the same mins & txt, but with 2½GB of data.
Yes, I know there are better SIM only deals out there on the O2 network, but I've been very happy with Tesco for a number of years now.

btw, getting hold of an iPhone SE wasn't easy. There's such a back order on them, or at least there was a couple of weeks ago. Even the Apple stores haven't got any on the shelf.

Just waiting for Apple to sort out the Bluetooth problem with the SE.
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Bobby
It is my wife who is getting the phone - I have an iphone6 (after years of androids) and I love it. But missus had a iphone 5c and felt she didn't want to go to the extra size of the 6 screen.

Size isn't everything you know........

When she originally tried to get it through EE they also said there was a huge backlog, but doing it through mobiles.co.uk it is next day delivery and courier is currently on route....
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - VxFan
A pleasant surprise today. A txt from Tesco telling me I had a prize waiting. Went to their phone website and filled in all the questions as requested and a £20 gift card is now on its way to me for taking out a new SIM only contract with them.
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - MD
giffGaff.
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Manatee
>> giffGaff.

Yep. I would have gone the GG route had I not found a contract that was unusually well priced. Even so it was a near thing.

GG works because it is flexible as well as good value. I have an unlimited minutes contract because there are odd periods when I can spend hours on the phone for several days in a month. With GG, I could easily manage with a £10 monthly goodybag (500 mimutes + 1GB) and just buy another when I needed it.
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Roger.
Still looking for a cheap PAYG deal!

Three is cheap, so I obtained a free SIM, but I can only get a decent service in the garden:-(
4G (just), but indoors long periods of no service at all.
Cost me a fiver top up to find out, so I'll use the fiver somehow or other, while away from the house, (or in the garden shed) even if I don't need to!

It seems that BT are yet again hiking land-line prices for both line rental (mine is paid upfront though) and add-ons like anytime calls. If the latter increase too much, ceasing it and spending the saved dosh on a monthly rolling contract, or a giffgaff goody bag, might be a way to go.

Research carrying on.
Last edited by: Roger. on Sat 7 May 16 at 22:38
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Bobby
Apple do many things well, sending a single text to multiple people they do not!

Why can they not simply have a tick box beside each person to tick if you want the text to go to them!!

Instead you need to hit a + button each time which takes you back to your contacts, for you to scroll through a to z, to select and then repeat . And the + button is right next to the cancel button!

Thank God its my wife's issue cos of course she would never ask me to sort anything techy out.....
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - VxFan
>> Why can they not simply have a tick box beside each person to tick if
>> you want the text to go to them!!
>>
>> Instead you need to hit a + button each time

Or just start typing in the contact's name and it'll bring up the person(s) in a drop down list, of which you then click on the name. Repeat for how ever many names you need to send a txt to.

Be aware though, if any of those people are on iMessaging, they will be given each others contact details. It's not like emails where you can bcc people.
 Workaround for Mobile number porting? - Bobby
Yeah had to switch imessage off first !
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