Question about sim card expiration due to inactivity - how can I stop it happening?

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tribedude

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Toronto Canada, visiting SA
I am an annual visitor to South Africa. I live in Canada but come to SA for three month of the year. This year when I arrived, both my USB modem simcard and my cellphone simcard were unusable. When I went to the Vodashop they said that if the cards are inactive for a certain amount of time they become unusable. I had to get new ones.

Now I am wondering how I can keep the cards active while in Canada so I keep the same numbers without incurring roaming cellphone charges.

1) how long does a simcard have to remain unused before it expires?
2) can i take the simcards to Canada and send lower cost SMS to somebody to keep the cards active?
3) Is there another method to keep the cards active?
 
Unfortunately Vodacom prepaid clients can not roam on the Canadian networks, so you wont be able to send SMS's from there to keep the numbers active.

Perhaps give it to a friend to use while you are gone?
 
As I have always understood it, Vodacom SIMs have a seven-month expiry window, the longest of all the providers. The rest will generally cut you off if you haven't made a chargeable call within three months -- except that MTN has a particularly ludicrous system whereby they will cut you off if you only use your SIM for data, but don't make an actual chargeable call. It's a jungle out there folks....

Be interesting to know whether point 2 in the original post might count!
 
Rouxdy,

This makes me think of another question:

With RICA being enforced - will SIM cards still expire? Surely it would be better to let people kep their numbers rather than letting it expire as that would create a whole mountain of work for both the network & the client everytime a new sim must be bought. Also what are the RICA implications regarding this?
 
Venomous said:
Rouxdy,

This makes me think of another question:

With RICA being enforced - will SIM cards still expire? Surely it would be better to let people kep their numbers rather than letting it expire as that would create a whole mountain of work for both the network & the client everytime a new sim must be bought. Also what are the RICA implications regarding this?
Click to expand...

To my knowledge RICA will have no impact on our inactivity rules. If there is not activity on the sim (dialing into your voicemail i think counts as activity also), then the number will be deleted, recycled and put back into circulation. RICA details for that number will then obviously be deleted also and then number will have to be registered again when it is assigned to someone else.

ICASA is strict when it comes to number allocation efficiency. The networks are bound by agreements to use their numbers as efficiently as possible. That is why recycling is done.
 
ocleroux said:
To my knowledge RICA will have no impact on our inactivity rules. If there is not activity on the sim (dialing into your voicemail i think counts as activity also), then the number will be deleted, recycled and put back into circulation. RICA details for that number will then obviously be deleted also and then number will have to be registered again when it is assigned to someone else.

ICASA is strict when it comes to number allocation efficiency. The networks are bound by agreements to use their numbers as efficiently as possible. That is why recycling is done.
Click to expand...
So basically everyone is screwed with RICA on a PERMANENT BASIS & if you go away for maybe just a day to long then you're in for some fun, not
 
Does recharging the sim reset the activity timeout ?

If so could maybe recharge the sim with R10 each month.
 
biena said:
Does recharging the sim reset the activity timeout ?

If so could maybe recharge the sim with R10 each month.
Click to expand...

When I went overseas for a year I recharged my sim once every 3 months and had no problems even without any use.
 
That definitely didn't work for me with an MTN SIM, which actually died even though it was used regularly (and exclusively) for data -- when I escalated the query (because it took a couple of hundred bucks' worth of my airtime with it when it went down) I was told very specifically I had to make a charageable voice call of at least one minute every three months. Oh, and I didn't get my airtime back either..... Ka-ching!
 
Terencek said:
That definitely didn't work for me with an MTN SIM, which actually died even though it was used regularly (and exclusively) for data -- when I escalated the query (because it took a couple of hundred bucks' worth of my airtime with it when it went down) I was told very specifically I had to make a charageable voice call of at least one minute every three months. Oh, and I didn't get my airtime back either..... Ka-ching!
Click to expand...
Ridiculous system. I suspect the CPA will render this an illegal practice.
 
ocleroux said:
ICASA is strict when it comes to number allocation efficiency. The networks are bound by agreements to use their numbers as efficiently as possible. That is why recycling is done.
Click to expand...

I can understand the need to recycle numbers - but a SIM card is not tied to the number, and I'd be quite happy if my number was thrown back into the pool, and I got issued a new one when I next tried to use the SIM card. I had two old SIMs that I'd RICAed and knew I'd use at some point, and when I tried they had both expired, and I was stuck 50km from the nearest Vodacom outlet with no SIM. Even if I was next door to an outlet, I'd not have been able to RICA a new SIM at a moment's notice.

No-one has been able to give me a logical reason why the SIM needs to be deactivated at all. Of course I'd never suggest that it's to minimise their liability with respect to the airtime on those SIMs.
 
Colin62 said:
I can understand the need to recycle numbers - but a SIM card is not tied to the number, and I'd be quite happy if my number was thrown back into the pool, and I got issued a new one when I next tried to use the SIM card. I had two old SIMs that I'd RICAed and knew I'd use at some point, and when I tried they had both expired, and I was stuck 50km from the nearest Vodacom outlet with no SIM. Even if I was next door to an outlet, I'd not have been able to RICA a new SIM at a moment's notice.

No-one has been able to give me a logical reason why the SIM needs to be deactivated at all. Of course I'd never suggest that it's to minimise their liability with respect to the airtime on those SIMs.
Click to expand...

Once a sim is de-activated, it can not be re-activated for security reasons.
 
ocleroux said:
Once a sim is de-activated, it can not be re-activated for security reasons.
Click to expand...

Thanks Ockie, but whose security? Vodacom's or mine? The SIMs had been RICAed in my name, and I kept them in a safe place until I needed them. If I'd lost them, I'd have informed Vodacom (and the thought police who want to track my every move). I'm not being funny here, but I really don't see any security issue. What I do see is a poorly designed system that can't cope with any form of flexibility, and so it's just tough on the customer, just buy a new sim card (and RICA it) and everything will be fine. And they're right, I will have to buy a new sim, but it won't be the same colour as the one that they deactivated.
 
Colin62 said:
Thanks Ockie, but whose security? Vodacom's or mine? The SIMs had been RICAed in my name, and I kept them in a safe place until I needed them. If I'd lost them, I'd have informed Vodacom (and the thought police who want to track my every move). I'm not being funny here, but I really don't see any security issue. What I do see is a poorly designed system that can't cope with any form of flexibility, and so it's just tough on the customer, just buy a new sim card (and RICA it) and everything will be fine. And they're right, I will have to buy a new sim, but it won't be the same colour as the one that they deactivated.
Click to expand...

I see where you are coming from, but trust me, it is for the best. Me and you do not think like a crim. The criminal minded have a thought process that we can only wish to posess. They come up with clever little ideas to jippo the system etc etc...so it is better to leave this door locked. It is for your protection, as well as Vodacom's. We all remember that story where Vodacom employees were implicated in the fraud with internet banking!

I see where you are coming from, but when it comes to security, more is definately MORE!

OC
 
I think an option will be to use the Vodacom4me service on Vodacom to send an sms from the website, I am sure that will keep the number alive!
 
FireTelkom said:
I think an option will be to use the Vodacom4me service on Vodacom to send an sms from the website, I am sure that will keep the number alive!
Click to expand...
How sure are you, have you tried this yourself?
 
ocleroux said:
Unfortunately Vodacom prepaid clients can not roam on the Canadian networks, so you wont be able to send SMS's from there to keep the numbers active.

Perhaps give it to a friend to use while you are gone?
Click to expand...

You can roam (SMS at least) with pre-pay in Canada with the Rogers network, well certainly in Vancouver as my wife did this last June while she was there! As a bonus (for me) I had a talking points SMS bundle and my texts to Canada were effectively for free!

You need to set SMS roaming on when you leave SA and turn it off before or when you return. If you send one SMS every two months (just to guarantee you don't forget and exceed 3 months) your number will stay active!

Countries where SMS roaming is available: http://www.vodacom.co.za/vodacom/StaticFiles/Roaming/D1.pdf

Details on activation here: http://www.vodacom.co.za/vodacom/services/International+Roaming/SMS+Roamer

You can try SMS'ing ‘ROAMON’ to +2782123 (at R2.75) and SMS "ROAMOFF" to 123 (free) when you get back to SA, I'm guessing that you could also send "ROAMOFF" to +2782123 before you leave Canada or if you stopover, this ensures voice calls are available the minute that you land... If you SMS "ROAMOFF" to 123 when you're back in SA it can take an hour or two before voice calls are available again. Obviously the quotes don't need to be typed into the SMS!!

I hope that helps...
 
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