got a new phone, now pin is invalid

[Philip2]

I have problems with my phone/plan - sometimes I can phone, sometimes I cannot.  Sometimes I can text, sometimes I cannot send or receive texts.  I decided to put the sim into another phone to see if the problem is with the sim card or the phone.  Message on the new phone says pin is invalid.  Does that mean the sim is corrupted?  Advice?

[computergeek541 · Accepted solution]

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@Philip2 wrote:

Nope, I bought a Public Mobile sim and activated is as such for the first time a couple of months ago.  It worked fine all these months, but now it "cuts out" - the phone is charged and working, but I cannot send or receive texts and cannot call or receive calls. The pin is the one I was ask to create when I activated the sim, and I did not activate any (other?) security feature that I am aware of.  It should not be invalid just because I put the sim into another phone?

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When you activate your service, the PIN that you create is for your account. That PIN isn't for your SIM card, nor does your phone or SIM card know what your account's PIN is.  If you've never manually changed the SIM card's PIN, it is still 1234.

[Philip2]

Nope, I bought a Public Mobile sim and activated is as such for the first time a couple of months ago.  It worked fine all these months, but now it "cuts out" - the phone is charged and working, but I cannot send or receive texts and cannot call or receive calls. The pin is the one I was ask to create when I activated the sim, and I did not activate any (other?) security feature that I am aware of.  It should not be invalid just because I put the sim into another phone?

[computergeek541]

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@Philip2 wrote:

I have problems with my phone/plan - sometimes I can phone, sometimes I cannot.  Sometimes I can text, sometimes I cannot send or receive texts.  I decided to put the sim into another phone to see if the problem is with the sim card or the phone.  Message on the new phone says pin is invalid.  Does that mean the sim is corrupted?  Advice?

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It's possible that the SIM card's security feature was enabled to ask the phone to ask for the SIM card's PIN any time it's put into a different device. However, you would have to manually enable that feature. The default SIM card PIN on all Public Mobile SIM cards is 1234, but you would have had to already have known that code to enable that security feature of the SIM card.

Is your phone asking for "SIM Network Unlock PIN"?  If it is, this means that the device is locked to a different carrier.