I have an eSIM with a different provider - can I switch it over?

[Bex15]

Hi,

I have a Virgin Mobile eSIM (and I need to keep that phone number) on an iPhone and I also now have moved my old phone number over to that same phone as a physical SIM card so that I have both numbers on the one phone. My old number currently sits with Public Mobile so I will either have to stay with Virgin and cancel my public account or if you can tell me how to move my whole system over to public then I will stay here. 

Thanks!

Rebecca

[softech]

bravos to @Alex_G !!

@Bex15  PM is one email one account , that's why your second number would need to be activate on a new account with another email

and PM is not offereing existing subscribers the chance to confirm to eSIM yet, I guess that added to the confusion.  But this will be changed, we are can use eSIM if you want to eventually

And glad everything is now sorted out.  Great next and great support PM!! Speeding support !!

[Bex15]

Update:
Alex at support was able to get my number back for me. I then reset my device and even though the eSIM shows the number that I had signed up with (but we didn't keep as Alex changed it to my old number), when I use that number it is my old number. Yay!

Just note, if anyone asks again if they can bring a number in as an eSIM, remember to tell them that they have to sign up with an entirely new account. This was the issue that confused me because tons of the help out there, even on the big companies' websites (like Rogers, etc) say that you can use 2 phone numbers on ONE phone plan. This is not the case (at least here at PM). And that's what tripped me up - I logged into my existing account and then when I asked to move my number over, it didn't tell me I'd be losing my old number by doing that (a notice before you finalize that step that you will overwrite the existing number on that account is probably a good idea, btw). 
Thanks for all of the messages on here. Now I feel like I went from fumbling around about dual SIMs, eSIMs, etc to being able to walk someone through this process. 
Thank goodness Alex was able to get my number back. Phew.

[Bex15]

I ported it from Bell in 2018. I called Bell a few hours ago and they said the number doesn't belong to them anymore, that when I ported it over to PM in 2018 it became theirs, so it still lives with PM.

This is what support has told me so far:

If you want this xxxxxxxx phone number, we can look into offering it, but you must have a separate account, as you can't have two phone number on one account.

Then they followed up with this:

Regarding the activation of a new account, this is only done online and the recommendation is that you do it with a normal sim

So I'm not getting an answer as to HOW I can get the number back.

[softech]

@Bex15 

since you just "give up" your number, you would not be able to choose the number from the pool  (It won't come back to the pool to choose for at least a month or 3 months.  Even it is in the pool, the chance you will see it is very slim)

So, only way is to have support to assign you back the number

But one question, for the number you lost, did you get it from Telus or Koodo or PM originally? or you ported into PM from another provider?

[Bex15]

Hi Softech, do you know if I can try to choose my number if I sign up for a new account? 

At this point the customer service/help desk has told me that I need to go and do it online but they haven't told me how I would be able to select that phone number. I have gone and created a new account now and selected eSIM, I entered the number to check that the eSIM will work and it will, so the next step is to enter payment but I don't want to enter payment if I cannot get my old number back. If I lose my old number I might as well just use 1 number. The whole point of doing this was to keep my number that I've had for 12 years.

[Bex15]

Well, it seems that I have lost my number. It is no longer with Public. It must go straight back to Bell when it is deactivated. 😞 

Edit: I called Bell and it is not with them. it's still with Public. I'm still messaging with the help desk here on PM to try to figure it out. They should have my number. I've been a customer here since 2018 with that number.

[Bex15]

ok thank you. I've sent a follow up message to them about this and we'll see what happens.

[softech]

@Bex15 there is a chance to get back the old number. Don't wait, message support and tell them you mixed up.  But you are willing to activate a new account with eSIM to get back the old number, they might be able to o assign it back to you after you activate

message them here

 https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

**Monitor your Community inbox (envelope icon on top right) after the ticket is opened.  CS Agent will reply to you there

[dust2dust]

All accounts are standalone. I have two accounts on two sims in a dual sim phone. It all works fine. But they're independent of each other. It's just that the phone can run two sims.

I think you have a slim chance of getting the old number back if it hasn't yet gone back to Bell by asking support. You could also go to Bell and start a cheap account and have them find the number. But again, I'm not sure how long this place holds on to released numbers.

[Bex15]

When I call my old number it says it's disconnected (out of service)

So I've lost the old number then I guess? I should give up and just use one number now (work number that I just ported)? I'll have to update soooo many things as I had that number for 12 years. 😞
It's not the end of the world, but it's super inconvenient.

It's also not clear to me then how you can have 2 numbers using one plan if you cannot "Add" a number to your existing account, as I was trying to do. This has definitely not cleared up the idea of having 2 numbers on one phone using the same plan for me. This is super complicated. I'm sad that it worked out the way it has if I've lost my old phone number.

I was hoping to keep my work number and my personal number separate.

[dust2dust]

Now go to manage eversafe and change the notification number.

You will need to ask support to try to re-enact your old number if it hasn't already gone back to Bell. Again you're confusing terms. The esim or sim are not the phone number. The account and phone number are "attached" to the sim. Your old number is out in limbo now if not back at Bell. So it would be a bit of a gamble to sign up a new account with a new sim and a new number and then ask support if they can apply your old number to the new account.

Do all of this in a whole other browser so as not to confuse stored data in the browser.

[softech]

@Bex15 if you use change phone number option on My Account, you have lost your old number!!

what happen if you call your old number?

[Bex15]

Oh thank you! I didn't know that was an option that came up. Ok I'm logged in and yes! The number is showing up as the ported number. Thank goodness.

So should I try to somehow sign up for a new account with a different email address then and try to use my old PM phone number as an eSIM? Can I select that phone number somehow when I do it?

[dust2dust]

Log in choosing resend code and the email option then you can go into manage eversafe id and change the notification number in there.

[Bex15]

No I didn't activate it with a new email because I thought I should use my existing account to 'add' the number. That was the biggest issue that I didn't understand in the process I think - is that it had to be a completely new account. So that's why the option to activate an eSIM didn't come up - the only option when I was already logged in to my account was to "transfer number" so that's what I selected.

[dust2dust]

That number originated with Bell. Not sure how long numbers hang around before they're handed back to the original provider.

Try going to settings, general,  about and see if any updates happen. Apple ID might be involved here too, not sure, I'm not an Apple user.

[Bex15]

I can't log in because it seems to not have fully transferred my number - it keeps trying to send the authentication code to my PM phone number (my personal number) which is now disconnected so I can't get the authentication code.

[softech]

@Bex15 

you should be safe.  But to be 100%, can you login My Account once more using Incognito mode and see if the correct phone number there.  Also, the receiving end when you make calls see the correct phone number?

As to the new account.  Did you activate with a new email and then ask to port in the number?   where you put in the porting request?

[Bex15]

The weird thing is that in my account when I'm logged in it still shows my old number with PM and not the number I transferred over.
Also, when I call the number I transferred over it works (I can call in and out and it all works perfectly), but I can text out but I cannot receive text messages to that ported number (the one I ported over from Virgin).

[Bex15]

My original PM number first six digits are: 778-233

[dust2dust]

Now this is making sense. I was writing something long but this concludes it all.

Yes, you overwrote your old PM number with your Virgin number. So the Virgin esim should be defunct. Certainly the service should be.

You would need to sign up a whole new account to have any chance of getting your old PM number back. It may not be too late. What are the first 6 digits of that number? And yes in this scenario you could try signing up with the esim from here.

[Bex15]

No it wasn't  new activation. I was (and still) logged into my existing PM account and there is an option right there to "transfer number". That's what I did.
Shoot I just used my husband's phone to test calling...
When I called him it showed up as the number that I just ported from virgin. When I tried calling my PM phone number (existing PM account) it said the number is not in service. Then I tried calling my 'work' number (the one I just ported over from virgin) and that is the number that works and that is now I guess active on my physical SIM card with PM. Am I explaining that well enough?

So my 'personal' phone number that I already had with PM seems to be disconnected.

What can I do to bring it back? It seems like I may have replaced my old number (that I already had with PM) with my work (virgin) number.

Is it possible that my old PM number is now deactivated? Could I bring that number over to my phone with an eSIM or have I now lost that number?

[softech]

>When I selected to transfer my Virgin phone number over to PM I was logged into my existing PM account 

hi @Bex15 

you didn't request transfer with a new activation???

when you make outgoing calls on the old PM sim, does the receiving end see your PM phone number that supposed to tie with that PM sim??

[Bex15]

Hi dust2dust,

I've been waiting this whole time for an agent and I'm next in line hopefully get helped soon but in the meantime I'm hoping you might be able to answer the question:

I've put my physical PM SIM card back into my old phone and I can phone out (not sure if that's bc I'm connected to wifi?) and I can send text (not iMessage - I have that shut off right now, but text msgs in green) but I cannot receive incoming text messages.

When I selected to transfer my Virgin phone number over to PM I was logged into my existing PM account which is associated with my existing PM physical SIM card (which I DO want to keep) but now that I cannot receive incoming text messages I cannot log back into the app because I cannot receive the 2-factor identification text codes. 

Now I have no clue what to do. I'm in limbo. My virgin number has been ported over (I called them and they said it's ported/cancelled and now sits with Telus). I do not have a physical SIM card for that - yet. I will go out to the mall shortly to get one if that's what I need to do.

But how do I preserve my existing PM phone number and add a new phone number for this one I just ported? Do I have to register for a new account and somehow pull that number in? Since I already selected to transfer it when I was logged into my existing account is this even possible? I don't know what to do from here.

[Bex15]

ok I can still move my PM SIM card back to my old phone so I don't lose that completely.

so if I get a new physical SIM card from PM for my virgin number so I can use that phone and phone number do I need to sign up for a completely new PM account? Because when I requested to transfer my number over I was logged into my existing PM account. Can I have 2 phone number associated with my account/my email address?

[softech]

@Bex15  if you pick a physical sim, then sorry you are physical sim for now until PM system is ready to migrate existing phsyical sim to eSIM (sorry, you are one of us because you picked physical)

it is late to go back to Virgin since you replied YES to Virgin SIM.  yes, actually Virgin an take you back, but that wont mean you loss the money with the new activation with PM you just did 

if you decide to stay with this new PM activation , you need to get a new sim card from store and message support to update the sim card

you can get a physical sim from:

• local Telus/Koodo/Mobile Klinik stores: https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/pick-up-SIM (call ahead to confirm availability ) 
• Amazon.ca:  https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B06X9ZGDWG/   (Free Prime next day shipping)
                              https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07R6P5KBB/ (Free Non-Prime 7 days Shipping w/Amazon Tracking)
• PM online: https://www.publicmobile.ca/sim-card   (Delivery could take anywhere from 5 days to 3 weeks)

[dust2dust]

No provider allows use of another providers sim or esim. You need that providers sim or esim.

[Bex15]

It asked me for my account number. 

If I did end up picking the physical SIM by accident, should I physically put my Virgin SIM card back in the phone then so I can use it? 

And then could I change my PM SIM to an eSIM?

Right now though, I cannot get text messages to either number because I'm in a sort of limbo. My PM number isn't associated with my phone anymore and my Virgin number doesn't have an account on PM yet - I only see my PM number when I am logged into my account. 

[softech]

@Bex15  you might have screw up at the beginning.  The very first step will ask you if you want to activate eSIM or physical.

message support to confirm what you have picked, but it could be too late if you picked physical.  Yes, if you picked wrong, you likely have to wait a month or two to change it back (again, the timeline is not a promise or anything.  Afterall, I am just customers like you.  But this is what I anticipate with current PM's system limitation)

But give you some encouragement, if you picked physical, there should be a step asking you for the sim card number.  You didn't see it, so it is a good sign you picked eSIM.  Again, that is what I see from my experience , no promise.  So, message support and kindly report back

[dust2dust]

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@softech wrote:

In a month or two when the system is upgraded, you can request to change it back to eSIM, but not at the moment

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@softech- Where has this promise and timing been mentioned ? An Oracle? Community manager? Did I miss it along the way? Did I skim read?