Help! Recover number back after disconnected and quarantine

[floraxy]

Hi! I've had a mobile number for many years. I am overseas and keep the number as essential for Australian services. However the it was disconnected as i forgot to top up. The expiry date of recharge was 08/01/2020, and it has been 9months. I contacted the previous service provider and they said the number was in quarantine for six months and now there is nothing they can do about it since most likely it has allocated back to the original telco service provider. I tired to call the number and found out that it is disconnecting and is not picked by anyone yet. I did some research on ACMA and seems like Optus now has ownership of the number . Is there any way I can recover my number with Optus, alternatively can I pick up this number for new sim/ service? Could anyone check the status of the number for me? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Serena_YC · Accepted solution]

Hi @floraxy,

Generally speaking, we are unable to reactivate a service number that has been cancelled for more than 6 months. 

However, if you would like us to take a closer look into this for you, we recommend messaging us via the My Optus app as we are unable to look into account details from this platform.

Our Messaging team is available 24/7 and are ready to assist customers as quickly as possible.

If for some reason you’re unable to use the My Optus app, please send a private message to the official Optus Facebook or Twitter page for further assistance.

[petergdownload]

"Is there any way I can recover my number with Optus"

Unfortunately almost none. I take it Optus wasn't the Telco you had the prepaid with? Optus won't give anyone a specific number on request (I think that's generally an industry wide situation). The best you can do is pay more for a 'special' number with some sort of pattern in it.

So at this stage I would move on and reset up your essential Oz services.

Note in future if you want to park a phone number there are a lot of cheap year long prepaid services (Like AmaySIM costing $10 for 12 months).