Why do sims cards stop working after 6 month?

[charlottebabe]

Gawd, arrived in Dublin yesterday only to discover that my sim card no longer worked. I had to find somewhere fast, which was a major hassle, to buy a new one and change my advert.

Why is it that pay-as-you-go sims stop working if you do not use them for 6 months, it is so inconvenient as after all I had paid for that number to be mine.

[The D Man]

The mobile networks have set up their systems this way.
One call or text will keep the number active and working all the time.
As far as I know you can even top up by credit card or laser card now even from another country.

[johnjoehannsg]

smae thing happened me with old sim
How do you re-activate them?

[The D Man]

How long is it since it was used last?

smae thing happened me with old sim
How do you re-activate them?

[mer]

ya its been locked, you see you need to top up!!! or else it thinks the number is not in use anymore!

im sure if you called up your netowork company they might be able to unlock it for you

[johnjoehannsg]

How long is it since it was used last?

I don;t know to be honest
I had a second sim card
it was in storage for a while, not sure how long, maybe around 6 months are longer
brought it out of storage, checked it, did not work
that was another six months ago, it must be well over a year now since i used it last
I need it again now thou

[The D Man]

If it is more than a year you will not be able to use it again.
The networks think that you are not using the number and will put the number back into storage
Then then re-use the number.
I know this information as I used to work in that industry
Give the network a call and explain to them that you need the number reactivated. They may do so depending on how persuasive you can be and providing they have not already re-used the number

I don;t know to be honest
I had a second sim card
it was in storage for a while, not sure how long, maybe around 6 months are longer
brought it out of storage, checked it, did not work
that was another six months ago, it must be well over a year now since i used it last
I need it again now thou

[johnjoehannsg]

If it is more than a year you will not be able to use it again.
The networks think that you are not using the number and will put the number back into storage
Then then re-use the number.
I know this information as I used to work in that industry
Give the network a call and explain to them that you need the number reactivated. They may do so depending on how persuasive you can be and providing they have not already re-used the number

what about sending new credit to it remotely? would that work via the internet or another number

[longtipp]

If you do not topup for 6 months your sim deactivates, after 6 months you need to top up again even if you have unused credit, this will reactivate unused credit. If your card remains deactivated for 6 months I think they turn it off and recycle the number. If the sim is deactivated after 6 months, I think it still recieves calls but you cant make them. This is my understanding of vodafone, other networks may vary.

[sharkskin]

...
Why is it that pay-as-you-go sims stop working if you do not use them for 6 months,
...

Even if you do not use the card, it costs the operator money to keep it active. If your card is with a virtual operator like Tesco, they will be paying a fee each month to O2 just to maintain a record in the subscriber databases. Even with the real operators, a lot have their networks on what is called vendor finance. That means that they never actually paid for all of the hardware that makes up their network. Instead, they are themselves on pay-as-you go with the equipment manufacturers. That means that they too have to hand over hard cash to another party just to keep the card active.