Is there simply no way to recycle sim card?

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Is there simply no way to recycle sim card?

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274 posts

Ultimate Geek

#62792 5-Mar-2007 00:10

richms: I have had the misfortune to buy a sim card that had a recycled number on it. And it was very active getting calls for the previous user of the number. Seems that it was active just a few months before I got it based on the number of people calling about "important financial matters"

Also, who knows what the deal is with 7 and 8 digit numbers? Last lot of cards I got I got an 8 digit number accidentally in the 021 2567-8xxx range, yet another one I got in the same range was 7 digits. How long has this being happening for?

funny thing actually happens, I signed up new OA early last year and got 6 digits.. is OA still got 6 digits available or was it recycled?

Shin

274 posts

Ultimate Geek

#62795 5-Mar-2007 00:18

mclayma:
Not quite Shin most markets that have implemented MNP have had very little churn as the providers generally "step up" The one market where there was an all out war was Hong Kong this was driven by an all out price war which saw the companies involved loose substansial amounts of $$$.

in Korea, government released activity of number movement every month in order to find out who is cheating.

it's real funny that government try to protect private companies profit by regulating amount of subsidies each customer could get it by moving to other company and companies actually try to cheat government to give more subsidy to customer even facing huge fine every quarter.

yup, there is very logical, political, economic reason to do so, but still it looks not a good idea.

richms

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#62797 5-Mar-2007 00:20

Another strange thing. A number of mine that lapsed about 4 years ago had been reactivated used and is going to expire again shortly, yet it is still listed on the vodafone site when I log in with my age old login from back when it was vizavi or whatever.

Ive changed all the details to mine, thinking of going and buying a new simcard for it ;)

Richard rich.ms

mclayma

104 posts

Master Geek

#62798 5-Mar-2007 00:23

richms: Another strange thing. A number of mine that lapsed about 4 years ago had been reactivated used and is going to expire again shortly, yet it is still listed on the vodafone site when I log in with my age old login from back when it was vizavi or whatever.

Ive changed all the details to mine, thinking of going and buying a new simcard for it ;)

I wouldn't broadcast that to loud someone will surely try to spoil you're Party...:p

richms

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#62801 5-Mar-2007 00:31

The details that were on the number were my made up ones that I gave when getting the credit, not like they were someone elses.

Besides, no one has being able to explain why they are able to pull a new unused blue/green sim off the shelf, and associate it with a number, yet are unable to associate an old expired not registering sim with it.

Richard rich.ms

mclayma

104 posts

Master Geek

#62802 5-Mar-2007 00:40

richms: The details that were on the number were my made up ones that I gave when getting the credit, not like they were someone elses.

Besides, no one has being able to explain why they are able to pull a new unused blue/green sim off the shelf, and associate it with a number, yet are unable to associate an old expired not registering sim with it.

Totally Agree NOT one person has been able to explain this. I was just kiddin about someone spoling your Party :-)
Wish it could work for me.

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#62806 5-Mar-2007 07:43

Shin:
richms: I have had the misfortune to buy a sim card that had a recycled number on it. And it was very active getting calls for the previous user of the number. Seems that it was active just a few months before I got it based on the number of people calling about "important financial matters"

Also, who knows what the deal is with 7 and 8 digit numbers? Last lot of cards I got I got an 8 digit number accidentally in the 021 2567-8xxx range, yet another one I got in the same range was 7 digits. How long has this being happening for?

funny thing actually happens, I signed up new OA early last year and got 6 digits.. is OA still got 6 digits available or was it recycled?

On account numbers can be 6 or 7 digits

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mclayma

104 posts

Master Geek

#62884 5-Mar-2007 19:55

Hey fellow geeks im wondering if we could get an idea of how many people this has actually affected I mean we can get a website unblocked in china so maybe we can get Vodafone to rewrite some of their automatic number allocation system so as to not further frustrate their customers.

mike

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#62885 5-Mar-2007 19:59

mclayma:
Hey fellow geeks im wondering if we could get an idea of how many people this has actually affected I mean we can get a website unblocked in china so maybe we can get Vodafone to rewrite some of their automatic number allocation system so as to not further frustrate their customers.

Be easier simply to topup $20 every 365 days.

mclayma

104 posts

Master Geek

#62886 5-Mar-2007 20:05

Good point however I believe that Vodafone should investigate changing their number allocation policy especially when the consumer is not notified (as in my case) that the access and credit were about to expire.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
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Geekzone

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#62887 5-Mar-2007 20:15

Mike is right... Users can topup every 365 days (or 90 depending on plan). Having a "cool down" period is a good idea, but then people are going to complain that 30, 60, 90 days are not enough.

As for not receiving a notification, Vodafone probably send a SMS warning the user of a pendig expiry date approach. If the phone (for whatever reason) is off, the message is not received, and all SMS have a time to live in the system before being scratched. So there's no evidence that Vodafone haven't in fact tried to contact you.

Very hard to make a case...

mclayma

104 posts

Master Geek

#62888 5-Mar-2007 20:19

Good point to sir. However I cant understand why if a user is willing to part with $$ then they can not in fact actually get the number back.

johnr

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#62896 5-Mar-2007 21:40

mclayma: Good point to sir. However I cant understand why if a user is willing to part with $$ then they can not in fact actually get the number back.

Go back and read the thread and you will see why!

Cranz covered this very well

Once a mobile number has been put in to the recycle pool it will be allocated to a new sim card which will be sent out to a store. So I suppose you could say at this stage it is 'connected'. If the mobile number was removed and re-allocated to your sim then there will be a dead sim being sent to a store. Telecom will allocate a mobile number to an ESN (??) once a handset is purchased where as Vodafone has to allocate mobile numbers to sim's before they are sent out to be sold.

mclayma

104 posts

Master Geek

#62903 5-Mar-2007 22:19

johnr:
mclayma: Good point to sir. However I cant understand why if a user is willing to part with $$ then they can not in fact actually get the number back.

Go back and read the thread and you will see why!

Cranz covered this very well

Once a mobile number has been put in to the recycle pool it will be allocated to a new sim card which will be sent out to a store. So I suppose you could say at this stage it is 'connected'. If the mobile number was removed and re-allocated to your sim then there will be a dead sim being sent to a store. Telecom will allocate a mobile number to an ESN (??) once a handset is purchased where as Vodafone has to allocate mobile numbers to sim's before they are sent out to be sold.

JOHNR good stuff thanks for pointing that out to me again but why can Vodafone not track where the SIMS are sent I would gladly go and buy my number back and to be honest Id be willing to pay three times the normal amount.

I'm sure that someone somewhere within Vodafone must have to manage the inventory and they should be able to tell where a SIM is. Otherwise how would they reconcile against what is actually being connected to the network?

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#62905 5-Mar-2007 22:23

OK lets track the SIM

Digital mobile order 5,000
First mobile 20,000
Dick Smith 5,000
Future Mobile 5,000
DS wireless 5,000
Noel lemming
Bond and Bond

(figures are pulled from my head guessing)

These are ordered by Head office of these companies and then dispatched by them

Very easy to track

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