Virgin SIM, Failed or blocked by Virgin?

Ian-K submitted this idea :
> I went to use my phone a few days ago and found it showing "No access to
> netw.".
> The usual switching it off and on didnt change anything and since it
> had three or four bars of service I assumed my direct debit had bounced
> causing the phone to be barred.
> A manual network search showed T-mobile as a provider but no connection
> still.
>
> So from a landline, since my phone is now just a paperweight with 3.2Mp
> camera, I called up Virgin to see whats happening.
> The account is in order, nothing barred or blocked apparently.
>
> So on Virgins advice I tried another phone, a trusty old Motorola, the
> predecessor to my current phone and previously used with this same SIM
> card.
> This tells me "Unregistered SIM"
>
> Virgin now want to sell me a new SIM card but as far as I can see this
> one works just fine. I can access and modify numbers stored in it with
> no problems and this uses the same six connections on the sim card as
> all other SIM data so the physical and electrical interface is working
> as it should.
>
> The part of the conversation with Virgin that intrigued me was that I
> should make a list of all the numbers stored in the sim before a new
> sim is created.
> Creating the new sim will disable and lock the current sim the second a
> sim replacement request is received.
>
> My question is How?
> If the phone has no network access how can Virgin affect the SIM card?
> If it has network access why doesnt it just work ?
>
> Its quite an old sim, one of the 32k ones apparently.

If you ask them nicely they will send a replacement SIM free. They did
for me last week when I bought a new phone and my old SIM, a 32kb one,
didn't work in the new phone. Turned out it was the phone, but that's
irrelevant! Oh, forgot to mention, I'm just a humble PAYG direct debit
customer. Be nice but persistent - surely worth another go... maybe
you'll get a more amenable person on the other other end.

I can quite understand why they want to disable the existing SIM when
they send you a new one. Presumably they link the new sim serial
number with your mobile phone number to ensure you don't use 2 sims for
the same number in 2 separate phones.

I don't have an answer to your question about your current setup seeing
Virgin but not working. I'm a newbie really, but think the Virgin
story is worth knowing about! :-)

Pete

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› See More: Virgin SIM, Failed or blocked by Virgin?

Never really got to the bottom of that one.
I had another Virgin SIM knocking about that came free with another
phone, slapped that in and it worked again.

If it stops working after another few months with under a tenner of
usage each month I know what conclusion I'll draw.

Cheers

Ian




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Ian-K