JimM
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- May 23, 2006
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Just a word of caution for those of thinking of porting their number to another network. In my case it was a pre-pay Virgin Mobile SA (hereinafter called the donor network) to MTN. Although my fiasco was pre-pay I'm reliably informed there are also problems for contract customers porting their numbers!
Background:
I have had a Virgin Mobile pre-pay SIM since they launched back in 2006 if I recall correctly. With the advent of RICA (the nearest Virgin Mobile outlet is miles away) and the fact that Virgin Mobile pre-pay airtime has a "use by date" and I was constantly having to recharge the account to be able to use the substantial credit that was already on the account, this plus no 3G made staying with Virgin Mobile pretty much pointless.
So I chose to port the number to MTN, I already have a Vodacom account so having the choice of two networks seemed a good idea at the time.
I popped into the next town and arranged the port, paid a kings ransom for a new SIM card but as I wanted to keep the number it seemed acceptable. Sadly this is where things started to go wrong as the store could not activate the port "because of a system error" and eventually after an hour I paid for the SIM and left the store happy (it's just a state of mind you know) with the assurance that just as soon as the porting system was working all would be well.
So I waited two weeks and used what little credit that remained on the donor network SIM card but at least I could still get incoming calls. I then make a call to the lovely lady at the MTN store and she told me that the system had "just come back online" some crash I thought, but no big deal my MTN SIM will soon be active!
A phone call two weeks four days after the initial got me the assurance that the MTN SIM will be active at network synchronization time circa 23.00 hours that night. The next morning the MTN SIM was still rejected as an invalid SIM. The following night saw the SIM come online but not registered for RICA.
At least we are getting somewhere!! Three weeks after my initial visit the MTN SIM was still in the same state and the donor SIM by this time would no longer accept incoming calls.
Three weeks two days after my initial and regrettable visit to the (still) lovely lady at the MTN store my Virgin Mobile donor SIM is now completely inactive and the MTN SIM is still asking for RICA registration!
The MTN network team are blaming the Porting team who in turn are blaming the RICA team and they are blaming the other two!
So if you are thinking of taking up Mobile Number Portability, think twice!!
I'm worried that MTN are not fit to run a bath let alone a cellular network!
My next step is ICASA does anyone have knowledge of the incompetence levels I'm likely to meet??
Background:
I have had a Virgin Mobile pre-pay SIM since they launched back in 2006 if I recall correctly. With the advent of RICA (the nearest Virgin Mobile outlet is miles away) and the fact that Virgin Mobile pre-pay airtime has a "use by date" and I was constantly having to recharge the account to be able to use the substantial credit that was already on the account, this plus no 3G made staying with Virgin Mobile pretty much pointless.
So I chose to port the number to MTN, I already have a Vodacom account so having the choice of two networks seemed a good idea at the time.
I popped into the next town and arranged the port, paid a kings ransom for a new SIM card but as I wanted to keep the number it seemed acceptable. Sadly this is where things started to go wrong as the store could not activate the port "because of a system error" and eventually after an hour I paid for the SIM and left the store happy (it's just a state of mind you know) with the assurance that just as soon as the porting system was working all would be well.
So I waited two weeks and used what little credit that remained on the donor network SIM card but at least I could still get incoming calls. I then make a call to the lovely lady at the MTN store and she told me that the system had "just come back online" some crash I thought, but no big deal my MTN SIM will soon be active!
A phone call two weeks four days after the initial got me the assurance that the MTN SIM will be active at network synchronization time circa 23.00 hours that night. The next morning the MTN SIM was still rejected as an invalid SIM. The following night saw the SIM come online but not registered for RICA.
At least we are getting somewhere!! Three weeks after my initial visit the MTN SIM was still in the same state and the donor SIM by this time would no longer accept incoming calls.
Three weeks two days after my initial and regrettable visit to the (still) lovely lady at the MTN store my Virgin Mobile donor SIM is now completely inactive and the MTN SIM is still asking for RICA registration!
The MTN network team are blaming the Porting team who in turn are blaming the RICA team and they are blaming the other two!
So if you are thinking of taking up Mobile Number Portability, think twice!!
I'm worried that MTN are not fit to run a bath let alone a cellular network!
My next step is ICASA does anyone have knowledge of the incompetence levels I'm likely to meet??
