Eir GoMo - €9.99/month SIM only (unlimited calls, texts and 80GB data, 10Gb EU Roam

So to cap it all off, I’ve €5 worth of international sms on my bill, 85 in total. All to the Apple iMessage activation number, at 6 cents each. iMessage has never activated since I ported.

Aquos76 wrote: »

My imessage activated almost immediately and only took one text, as did my sons and my wife's ones, no idea how you could generate 83 text messages and still haven't managed to get it activated

Issues with the port. I can’t receive any calls or SMS either, so I’d imagine the sms or acknowledgement Apple sends back automatically to confirm isn’t coming through

In my experience of porting between mobile operators in Ireland (and I've done it lots of times over the years) it generally works very well but it can go horribly wrong and glitch and then the port needs to be restarted, and particularly with phones that used to be on Vodafone i.e. 087 numbers. I'm speaking anecdotally but my 087 number business number ALWAYS has issues with ports whereas my 085 number never had and usually ports within a few minutes.

It has me wondering if Vodafone IE is using some ancient background infrastructure relative to the other operators.

The present day phone network basically does something a bit similar to a DNS server on the internet. When you dial a number, there's a database look up which allows the switch (exchange) to immediately locate where that number really is. The same happens for SMS and other services associated with your number. It's not done with a series of call diversions or anything cumbersome. So, when a port fails, it usually means that something has managed to fail to propagate that database properly - a bit like when you move a website from one hosting service to another and it doesn't show up.

If GoMo wanted to save some hassle, they should have some web form that allows people to resubmit the port request, if it doesn't happen. The whole thing could be automated without dragging a load of customer care stuff into it.

Generally though I have to say the porting in Ireland is very fast and usually works flawlessly. It's incredibly cumbersome in a lot of other countries - I remember in the UK it used to take days and require getting all sorts of bureaucracy from your existing operator.

Sparkrite wrote: »

Not true.
My daughters number was ported before she received her SIM.
No great problem, just two days without a working phone, just popped in her Gomo sim when it did arrive and off she went,
working with her ported number.

If you've confirmed your number by text and you put in a porting request, it will generally happen automatically with most of the networks and very quickly. Sometimes porting in Ireland can happen almost instantaneously in my experience. All they're doing is updating some entries on a database that routes your calls and texts. It's not a very involved process, once they've confirmed you are you.

So if you've confirmed your number with them and put in the request, it will be moved ASAP, so you'll end up with no service on your existing sim and a pre-ported GoMo sim. It's not unique to GoMo as 3 did exactly the same with my previous move.

I'd say if you're concerned about 'prematurely porting', just don't put in the request until you get your SIM in your hand. It will have a temporary number on it anyway which will work and then you can just port your existing number over, usually with minimal disruption (although it can glitch sometimes... usually works smoothly though!)