I just noticed that my phone number has changed after having switched to fairphone. How is this possible? I am with Three, in the UK, and did not request a change of phone number…
Was it an eSim or a physical sim? If it was an eSim maybe the operator messed it up and you can call them to fix it. It’s not something I’ve ever heard of.
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As he said. This is impossible (deliberately so, because your number is your ID for many things, like 2FA transaction validation SMSs and such).
Are you sure your number has changed? Did you try calling your real (initial) number and your new (changed) one with another phone?
I keep receiving messages to my “real” number but when I check my number in the settings, then it appears different!
And if you send a message to that number does it come to your phone? Maybe it is just a wrong information form the operator. One of my sims shows unknown number for example, but works just fine.
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Well if it’s just a cosmetic issue it isn’t that bad, is it. The important thing is that you still control your phone number and any important confirmation tokens don’t go to some malicious actor.
Did you account for international number format? My French number for instance is in France “06xxx…”, but in international writing it’s “+33 6xxx…” (missing “0”).
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@MattiaElliott Hi Mattia,
I had a similar problem when I switched to a new MVNO. As I recall, when my number was ported (at my request) to my new SIM (let’s call it SIM1), calls came to SIM1 but text messages went to the OLD SIM. Text messages I sent appeared to come from the temporary number assigned to SIM1 (I think). Moreover, in the Google Messages app in the RCS chats settings, the number shown was the (temporary) number assigned to SIM1 before my number was ported to it.
Again as I recall, the solution was for my new supplier to send me another NEW SIM (let’s call it SIM2) which was initially inactive. Before I inserted SIM2 into my phone I was instructed to call customer support, who deactivated SIM1 and activated SIM2. When SIM1 went inactive, I removed SIM1 and inserted SIM2 in the phone. This also fully deactivated the OLD SIM and solved the problem, although Google Messages took a few days to verify my number in the RCS settings.
I hope this is clear (too many SIMS involved!).
You might ask your new network (Three) to try this approach with a new SIM (your equivalent of my SIM2).
Let us know how you get on.
By the way, my experience was with physical SIMs on an FP4 when switching from 1p Mobile to spusu in the UK, both MVNOs on EE. I see that you’re switching to Three in the UK, but it would be interesting to know what phone you have and what network you’re switching from. It would also be interesting to know if you’re talking about a physical SIM or an eSIM