A few weeks ago I moved my mobile phone contract from O2 to T-Mobile/EE at the Carphone Warehouse. It was the first time that I’d ever moved networks since I first got a mobile phone in 2001 or 2002, and the process was very simple. I wanted to keep my old number so this is what I did:
- Contact O2 to ask for a PAC. I did it online using their live chat facility.
- Buy new mobile phone contact.
- Phone customer service on new network (T-Mobile) and tell them the PAC.
- Wait 24-48 hours for the old number to transfer over to the new SIM card.
However, I discovered that the SIM card was still reporting the ‘temporary’ T-Mobile number rather than my original number, and it turns out that Android doesn’t provide a way to edit the number stored on the SIM card.
After a couple of hours of searching on Google, I ordered an old Sony Ericsson K800i phone on eBay as it turns out that this device does allow you to edit the number stored on the SIM card. It arrived a few days ago, as did a micro-to-SIM card adapter and today I popped the SIM card out of my new Google Nexus 4 and edited the number on the SIM.
Here’s what I did on the Sony Ericsson K800i:
- Contacts
- Options
- Special numbers
- My numbers
- Select your main number, it may be called something like “My mobile” or “Line 1” or similar, and press Edit
- Enter your new number, e.g. +447123456789
- Save
And it worked: Android now reports my original number. I’ve done the same for Jane’s phone too, as she moved from O2 to T-Mobile a few months earlier and experienced the same issues.
Jane has a Samsung Galaxy Ace running Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread) and it would appear that on this phone/operating system it is essential to make sure the date and time are set correctly otherwise it won’t connect to the internet and will report a “no connection” error.
I’m posting this in case it helps anyone else. Oh, and does anyone else need a third-hand Sony Ericsson K800i?