Family Member Passed, Recovery of Their Old Mobile Number

[JA1010000]

Hi there,

I'm wondering if somebody could help me please, I've tried just about everything and I am at my wits' end.

I am trying to recover an old mobile number that was tied to an old O2 account. For context, my mother has recently passed and the mobile number was under her account. There are many accounts which hold some of our memories and old family contacts which I am unable to gain access to due to 2FA.

The main accounts are Gmail, Google Drive and Skype. I'm sure you know Skype is being deleted come 5th May 2025 and fear I may lose her old contacts. For months, I have tried every type of account recovery and customer service is proving unhelpful. Despite knowing my mother's old passwords and email logins, the last barrier is the 2FA linked to her old mobile.

Lastly, I also tried recovering the number via O2's customer service and various teams for weeks to no avail.

Her old mobile in question is REDACTED.
Name: REDACTED
Type: Pay As You Go (I believe it was).

Whenever I call the number, it goes to O2's voicemail straight away - it seems as though all hope is not lost.

We do not have the old SIM anymore, therefore transferring it via the SN number was also a dead end.

As mentioned above, I feel the deadline of Skype's removal is adding more pressure to this, I'm sure you understand.

I understand this is a unique case and am grateful for any help.

Please let me know if you require more information.

Thank you

Forgive me if I am not meant to tag moderators, but I really am desperate @O2KyleW @O2Sarah- @MI5 

[Enlli]

Those people are either no longer here or are not moderators

I'll tag our forum manager but no guarantees 

@Dave-O2 

[JA1010000]

To be clear, the phone number used to go straight to O2 voicemail. After calling back and forth with the PAYG team to try and resolve this, it now seems to say "You've dialled an incorrect number".

I just got off the phone with the O2 Bereavement Team but I was told the number was transferred out of the network entirely.

How could this happen?? Is it possible to trace the path of the number?

The PAYG/Pay Monthly team tried to set it up on a new SIM but it didn't get transferred and the process was cancelled altogether - has this caused this error?

[JA1010000]

After doing a network lookup online, I found the following results:

Ofcom Data:
Network: Telefonica UK Limited
Change date: 10-2007

So according to this, it still belongs to O2.

[Enlli]

If the number has transferred out entirely it may be that the number was originally issued by another network in the past and ported in to O2.

All numbers are returned to the issuing network 

Have you got the first 5 digits of the number? 

[JA1010000]

Sure, the first 5 digits are:
0754846

I appreciate your help very much

[Enlli]

Yep. Now owned by Telefonica.

Obviously it has gone off the system and added to the pool of numbers for reissue in the future. There is very little chance of any on the team getting their hands on it

[madasaf1sh]

@JA1010000 

The dates on the S7 spreadsheet are a date in the past, and they mean nothing nowadays sorry to say, and Telefonica is more than just o2, so it could have belonged to one of Telefonica's wholesale partners.. 

Just to say you never own a mobile phone number it is and always will be owned by the Mobile Network...

And as others have said you have a very slim chance of getting the number back..