Dear LPG,

I read your posts regularly and note the amount of messages about mobile smart and iPhones and what they can do.  My phone is mobile, but neither smart nor ‘I’ (if you know what I mean).  I have it because my son insists that it is a good idea to take it out with me, so that I can get in touch if anything happens and so that he and his sister can get in touch with me wherever I happen to be.

I understand that the fact that I take it out with me when I leave the house gives them peace of mind and  I have had it for years, but even though I follow his instructions and keep it charged,  I really don’t use it very much at all.  When I am out, it is in my pocket and with all the hustle and bustle of the traffic and people walking the streets I can’t really hear it when it rings, and when I am at home I have a perfectly good phone which I have much less of a problem making a call from.

One day not so long ago when visiting, my son explained again that he had tried to call me without success and then decided to  offer me a refresher course on the basics of making a mobile phone call but he couldn’t.  The phone was fully charged but the call would not go through. 

He phoned the service provider from another phone and found out that they had suspended the number because I have not used the phone for so long.  They explained that even with all the possible numbers they have beginning with 07, so many people want new ones that there are not that many to go round; so if they see no activity on your phone, after six months they suspend it with a view to passing the phone number onto someone else who is looking for one, although our call was made in time to get the number reinstated.  So, there was absolutely nothing wrong with my phone, and if I got a working sim card put in it, it would work perfectly.

The moral of my story is that in order to keep your mobile phone number working you have to use it to phone someone at least once every six months. So if you don’t really use it much I suggest that you follow my lead; I now have a reminder in my diary.

WM, Grove Park

Each mobile phone service provider has different rules about the length of time they give before cancelling mobile phones that have not been used.  LPG suggests that a call to the company you pay to top up your phone will clarify their policy.

LPG has found some information…

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