Porting eSIM from Lyca to Belong Physical Sim - Don't Do It!

Lsamwise_777 on 26/02/2025 - 08:57
Last edited 05/03/2025 - 09:57

This is my experience, and a warning. I'm open to suggestions of what I should do / what may have gone wrong.
Acknowledging that I am a sim-slut and will move providers usually 3-monthly.

Last Tuesday 18/02 I initiated a port from Lyca prepaid (eSim) to Belong $55 physical sim purchased from coles.
The port process was all fine, and I received a port-complete email from belong. My Lyca esim also stopped working immediately, which seemed like a good sign.

However, once inserted the new sim displayed the dreaded 'SOS no sim'. I tried it in another phone and had the same issue.
My Lyca account isn't even accessible if I try to login using my phone number (therefore issue lies with Belong).

Now what follows is a series of failed attempts to get this sorted with Belong. Keep in mind I have no access to my phone number since 18/02 to make any support phone calls, just online chats / emails.

I first reached out to Belong via online chat that same day 17/02 and was told to allow up to 36 hours.
I followed up on online chat on the 18/02 and 19/02 to be told it was escalated as well as being told I'd be contacted via email with updates (though that never happened).
On the 21/02 I opened a complaint with belong and received correspondence on the 21/02 which was generic, On the same day I lodged a TIO investigation.

On 24/02 I received the following email from the complaints department:
"I wanted to inform you that your mobile service shows as active with Belong, which means the port-in process has been completed. However, it appears that a few network settings are still in progress, indicating that our backend team is still working on it. We have already escalated the issue to the backend team and are awaiting their response."

They then instructed me to purchase a new sim (or order online and wait 2-4 days) and do a "sim transfer" - I suppose ruling out the possibility of a faulty simcard? I am waiting for the simcard to arrive as I didn't want to have to purchase a new sim pack in store and give Belong one more cent or minute of my time once this is resolved (assuming it is resolved).

As of today 05/03 I have no access to my mobile number

Update: replacement sim ordered 24/02. Still hasn't arrived…
Compensation offered is one month fees. It's been over 2 weeks without a service. Needless to say I will not be accepting that offer.

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Comments

  • Bruceflix on 26/02/2025 - 09:01
    +4

    Sounds like a faulty sim

    • samwise_777 on 26/02/2025 - 09:02

      Hopefully. I'll update once I receive the replacement in the next day or so.

      • Neoika on 26/02/2025 - 10:06
        +1

        To avoid porting onto a faulty SIM, test the new SIM first and make sure that it can be detected. For extra caution, check whether the serial number on the physical SIM matches the one printed on the packet.

        You may be compensated like this, but it is time consuming.

        • samwise_777 on 26/02/2025 - 11:44

          Thanks for the heads up.
          Dated 16/09/24 on sim packet. The sim matches the packet

          • Dr Phil on 27/02/2025 - 14:35
            +1

            @samwise_777: "Acknowledging that I am a sim-slut and will move providers usually 3-monthly"

            Therein lies your problem
            Each time you port to save $5 you run such risks.
            Just select a good plan and stick you it.

            Prices are going up and up and up right now.
            The cheapest monthly and 12 month plans have now been removed.
            And the process is continuing so forcing people like OP to pay more and more
            You are not doing yourself any favours!

            3 examples…

            Late 2023 you could get a 60GB 365 day plan with Amaysim for $120 (les on discount
            Now the cheapest 365 day plan with amaysim is $175

            Much the same with Catch Connect until mid 2024 with their cheapest 365 day plan (was $99) now starting at $200 (though regularly discounted for 1st year)

            Belong had monthly plans starting at $10.
            Now they start at $30

            If you had locked in any of these plans then you locked in that super low price.
            Though Belong have increased the cost of their cheapest monthly plan to $21 with more GBs.
            Still $9 cheaper than Belong's current cheapest price

            • samwise_777 on 27/02/2025 - 14:47

              @Dr Phil: I hear what you are saying, but do not accept that prices are going up and up and up because of this practice.
              Other then the cohort on OZB I know no other people sim-slutting. This is a minority group in the scheme of things.

              Everything is going up…and it has nothing to do with these practices.

              • Dr Phil on 27/02/2025 - 14:48
                +1

                @samwise_777: Agree is not because of Sim swapping.
                I never said it was.
                Its just Telcos getting greedy

                As you said
                Everything is going up…and it has nothing to do with these practices.

        • conant on 27/02/2025 - 09:28
          +1

          test the new SIM first

          How can I do that? The faulty sim will show sos, what will an unactivated good sim show?

          • Neoika on 27/02/2025 - 11:03
            +1

            @conant: It can connect to the network, i.e. have signal. Some Telcos will immediately send a SMS about activation.

  • CodeXD on 26/02/2025 - 09:06

    Where did you buy the belong sim from?

    Has it been near strong magnets?

  • 87percent on 26/02/2025 - 09:24
    +3

    Don’t forget about the probably 100’s of other ports that have gone through successfully since yours has failed

  • Colin2905 on 26/02/2025 - 10:31

    As of today 26/02 I have no access to my mobile number (people get my old voicemail when they call it).

    By "old voicemail" do you mean your old Lyca voicemail?

    • wots on 26/02/2025 - 11:05

      That’s a concern. It indicates that the port hasn’t been successfully completed and the number is still routed to your old provider.

      • Colin2905 on 26/02/2025 - 11:14

        Yeah, that's where I was going with my question. If it's not the OP's old Lyca voicemail, then the only other possibility that I can think of is if the OP has previously been on Belong, but I've never known voicemail to be resurrected like that.

        • samwise_777 on 26/02/2025 - 11:41

          Yeah I need to check it for myself….I've just been told it goes to my voicemail

        • kiitos on 27/02/2025 - 08:02

          So ist that's the case, can OP approach Lyca about the problem as well? Or only Belong?

          • samwise_777 on 27/02/2025 - 14:49
            +1

            @kiitos: I've checked and it no longer goes to any voicemail. Might have been early days that was happening

  • JimB on 26/02/2025 - 11:20

    " I am a sim-slut and will move providers usually 3-monthly."

    There's probably a 1% chance something goes wrong when porting. Do it every 3 months, it's likely that something will go wrong.

    Anyway, hope it gets resolved sooner rather than later for you.

    • samwise_777 on 26/02/2025 - 11:40

      Yep, I guess there is always some sort of risk. This is pretty strange though given how many previous port attempts have been fine.
      The only difference here for me is going esim to sim

      • mskeggs on 26/02/2025 - 13:12
        +2

        strange though given how many previous port attempts have been fine.

        But the comment's meaning that you replied to is that it is more likely something will go wrong the more often you do something, so not sure how that is strange?

        • samwise_777 on 26/02/2025 - 14:00
          +1

          Valid point. Not strange, unfortunate. I was leaning towards the eSIM-sim being the culprit and that in my mind is “strange”
          But based on a number of comments it would seem the SIM card is almost certainly a dud

  • bargaino on 26/02/2025 - 13:22

    You don't port SIMs, just phone numbers.

    If the new SIM does not work at all, what on earth does that have to do with number porting?

    • samwise_777 on 26/02/2025 - 14:00

      Good point. So SIM card must be a dud

      • bargaino on 26/02/2025 - 14:47

        If activated, then probably. of not compatible somehow.

        To be clear: first they activate the SIM, then they port the number.

        • samwise_777 on 26/02/2025 - 16:23

          So possible that the sim wasn't activated properly (if faulty) and they ported the number (having left lyca) but is somehow is in a limbo state between Lyca and Belong?

          • bargaino on 26/02/2025 - 16:47
            +1

            @samwise_777: Get a working SIM first. If port went bad, you'd have a temporary number.

    • ColtNoir on 27/02/2025 - 13:11

      It’s probably not even faulty. The amount of times I had to tell a customer to complete a sim swap to fix an issue with the backend was crazy. Often it’s related to assigning the IMSI to the mobile number and you can’t always manually change it, even with the God access I used to have.

      Whilst a sim swap would fix it, the card itself wasnt faulty.

      • samwise_777 on 27/02/2025 - 14:51
        +1

        That sounds like the case, it took them nearly a week to suggest the sim swap option so there must have been more to it? Otherwise just suggest that first up!

  • larryP11 on 27/02/2025 - 08:24
    +1

    You only become a “Sim Slut” when you port monthly!! (28 days)

    • samwise_777 on 27/02/2025 - 14:49
      +1

      Fair enough. I haven't done that for a while

  • ColtNoir on 27/02/2025 - 13:06
    +1

    Honestly, Belong are garbage and I’ll never go back.

    I had issues with sending SMS and their only solution was to tell me to switch from the eSIM to physical sim, which wasn’t going to work as the physical sim is used for work.

    I then ported out 2 days into the billing cycle and they charged me for the whole month, not just pro-rata’d and tried to rely on the T&C’s. This type of behaviour is what the main carrier used to try to get away with 15-20years ago. Took a TIO complaint to get refunded the unused portion of the bill.

    • samwise_777 on 27/02/2025 - 14:50

      Yep totally regret it. I had a good deal with Lyca at $7.5 per month ongoing but I accidently turned off auto-renewal and lost that rate

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