Recovering lost Vodafone number, last ported on to O2

NFH

A friend of mine moved abroad several years ago so he moved his UK mobile number (at least 15 years old) from contract to prepaid. The number was on an old Vodafone prefix, which he subsequently ported around, last on O2 prepaid. He subsequently visited the UK often enough to keep his number active, but he has just realised that this time he has left it 22 months and the number is now disconnected. This is hardly surprising because almost every UK network requires a balance deduction every six months to keep a prepaid account active.

Is there any chance of him recovering his number? If so, should he approach Vodafone (the original issuer of the number) or O2 (on whose network the number was last live)? He will be using Giffgaff when he's next in the UK.

gjchester

NFH wrote: »

Is there any chance of him recovering his number?

Has anyone tried calling it, You said it's been disconnected but thats likely to be the SIM card. After 22 months it's likley to have been re-deployed to someone else.

It used to be 6 months lack of use causes close of the account. Number is then held in quaranteed for 6 or 9 months, then released. That means been available for 7 or 10 months.

NFH

gjchester wrote: »

Has anyone tried calling it, You said it's been disconnected but thats likely to be the SIM card. After 22 months it's likley to have been re-deployed to someone else.

Yes, I did try calling it; it is indeed disconnected. I'm guessing the reason that it hasn't been given to someone else is probably for two reasons:

• It's on an old Vodafone prefix. Networks tend to issue new connections on new prefixes rather than using new ones.
• Vodafone might be unaware that O2 are no longer maintaining the number.

Jon_01

After 22 months O2 will have returned it to Voda.

If you get a new Voda payg sim and call their cs someone might be able to find the number in their system. Not all cs staff know how to, but it's worth a try.

NFH

Jon_01 wrote: »

If you get a new Voda payg sim and call their cs someone might be able to find the number in their system. Not all cs staff know how to, but it's worth a try.

Thanks. I'll tell him to give it a try. I suppose anyone could do this (e.g. me), not only the original customer whose number it was.

When I tried the same with T-Mobile for my very old one2one number that I had mistakenly allow to expire, they refused to do anything, saying that the number could already be on a not-yet-activated new SIM card ready for a new customer.

Jon_01

If the number was waiting to be activated it would show that on the system.

You'd need to find someone that had been there a while and know their way around the 'little used menu's'. I was once told by a cs agent that it couldn't be done, so I walked them through the process just to show them it could!

NFH

There has been an unexpected outcome. My friend decided (against my advice) to phone O2 and they reactivated his number and restored his £20 of credit. Not bad! He will then port to Giffgaff once his £20 credit is used up.

Jon_01 wrote: »

If the number was waiting to be activated it would show that on the system.

You'd need to find someone that had been there a while and know their way around the 'little used menu's'. I was once told by a cs agent that it couldn't be done, so I walked them through the process just to show them it could!

Now this has given me renewed impetus to try again with T-Mobile. Thanks!

NFH

Although O2 told my friend that they could reinstate his number, they subsequently failed to do so. He has now asked Vodafone, who say that the number is decommissioned, is no longer available, but could be reissued at any time, even to a dongle. Any more ideas on how to get this sorted out?

Jon_01

I've never heard of 'decommissioned' number !

But if they're saying it could be reissued, then it's just in their pool of recycled numbers waiting for assignment.

It's the same as before, they can look for it if they know how. The hard part is finding someone that knows how. Due to the fast turn over in staff they end up with only a few knowing the in's and out's of the menu's.

It should be an option under 'Telephony' on their system and then something like 'Search Misdens'. And then they can enter search strings as used in dos commands. So to look for a number with, say, 2 strings of 666, they enter *666*666* and the system throws out all numbers in holding that fit that...

But as I said above, it's finding someone that knows how to do. That's the hard part...