Porting issues 2 sims with same number on different networks.

Lofty73

Grab a drink this is going to be a tale 😀

I have an 87 year old friend who has had the same mobile number since Feb 2000 originally on the EE 😮 network.

He has subsequently moved networks always porting his number without problem. approx 12 months ago he moved to Lebara and had no problems until about 3 months ago when his friends started to say that they couldnt get in touch with him. He reported this to Lebara and they eventually sourced it to a routing issue and all was fine.

Move to August and the problem reappeared but this time he started to get messages and calls from unknown people about car repairs, tyres and servicing. We initially put this down to people entering the wrong number. The strange thing was I, who am also on Lebara could call and text him no problem.

To cut a long story short it turns out that my friends number had been removed from the porting database at EE and reissued to a Garage in the UK so we have two sims with the same number but on different networks. People on Lebara can get through to my friend but on any other network get directed to this EE customer.

We have contacted Lebara who are just passing it on and the EE customer did say he has reported it but nothing was done as yet. I cannot get any answer when I try to call the guy and EE will not talk to me as im not a customer and data protection gets in my way.

Im running out of Ideas and my friend is worried because Family members and his GP cannot contact him.

Ofcom is my port of call i suspect and once it gets resolved (🤣🤣) compensation I hope.

If this is not in the correct category then please move.

Thanks Nigel

muffinhead

Have you tried escalating the complaint to CEO level of Lebara or EE? If they've been unhelpful then Ofcom would be the next step and, like you say, a few quid in compensation might be credited to your friend.

The UK porting system is strange, even though you move to a new mobile network there is still an underlying connection the original network.

If you wanted a potential DIY fix, your friend should temporarily port back to EE as this is the originating network and that should reset the porting files.

Best way to do this is to order a free EE PAYG sim. You don't need to top-up and will be free to port out again, usually the day after the port to EE has completed. Of course, porting out of Lebara will cancel the contract / plan so be considerate of this.

flaneurs_lobster

I have an 87 year old friend who has had the same mobile number since Feb 2000 originally on the EE 😮 network.

EE didn't exist in 2000, was formed in 2010 (as Everything Everywhere) by a merger between Orange and One 2 One.

Still means that you are best to port back to EE to try and fix the porting issue.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82144906#Comment_82144906

It should be a call to the Lebara/Vodafone technical support saying there is a ported number corruption resulting in a cross routing infrastructure failure. Presumably all internal (lebara/vodafone) calls are going to the OP and all external calls (any other network) are going to the garage because Vodafones internal DB says its their number but the central db says its an EE number (numbers never truly leave the original network) who direct the call to their business customer.

The Porting team should clear and reissue the CNDB broadcast to re-establish the port to the OP in the central db

savergrant

AFAIK networks are allocated blocks of numbers and if those numbers become dormant the issuing network is allowed to reissue the number to meet the demand for new numbers. Each block is allocated based on the numbers immediately after the 07, so certain people in telecoms can always identify which network the number was originally issued to. Each network has a list of its own subscribers so if you dial a lebara number from lebara (or another Vodafone based network) the call goes straight through. If however you call from a different network they have no way of knowing which network the number is currently connected to, only which network originally issued it. The issuing network should know which network to reroute the call to. As FL has said EE didn't exist until 2010 (and was still using both the T-mobile and Orange branding for some years afterwards) so there is obvious potential for flawed systems. If getting a new number for your friend is unpalatable it is probably best to contact the new EE customer and ask them to request a new number (as they've not had that number for very long it shouldn't be a problem for them) and then to try porting your friend's number to an ee based network and then back out to a new lebara sim.

I do sympathise.

Lofty73

Thank you and as both of you have made it perfectly clear that EE didn't exist until 2010 my mistake.

I have managed to contact the EE customer who has the duplicate number finally and he is due to go into the shop and explain it to them. When he contacted EE over the phone they said he had to contact Lebara which is totally useless as without an active account GDPR will not allow any discussion. I faced the same when I called EE. Im glad flaneurs has given me the right terminology to use as clearly the explanation I have given so far does not work with these Indian call centers. I will not let my friend loose this number I have also spoken to Ofcom and am looking for some recompense from EE for this disaster

flaneurs_lobster

Im glad flaneurs has given me the right terminology to use as clearly the explanation I have given so far does not work with these Indian call centers

Not me, I defer to my fellow posters @MyRealNameToo and @savergrant