Was Sky effected by the issue with Syniverse (MPN service)

[ross_mini5]

Does anyone know if Sky was effected by the issue below:

Taken from @pgn post.  
There has been an issue with one registry that handles PAC requests, Syniverse (MPN service), impacting number moves between the larger mobile telecom companies and the MVNOs like TescoMobile, GiffGaff, Lycamobile, etc. 

Originally I was on O2, then I moved to Sky on 28/10/23, then after I had some problems I moved back to O2 on 09/05/23. I have an iPhone 13.

I still have some problems and don’t know what to do next.

[Oxonian]

@ross_mini5 

I am not quite sure that I understand what your issue is - would you like to describe it please ? 

[pgn]

@Oxonian:  Apart from a little time-travel in the O2 -> Sky -> O2 shuffle dates shown above, I think what @ross_mini5 is asking has to do with the partial port from Sky back to O2, which has impacted Santander OTPs, for example, n their case - and arises partly due to a reference I made on the Forum here some time back.

And the link to Syniverse? Well.  Syniverse is big into MNP (not MPN as I wrote in the post cited above!), mobile number portability, sitting above the MNOs and MVNOs and brokering PAC transactions for them.  It also handles SMS routing between operators, as well as some elements of billing, probably cross-network (roaming) SMS and the like. Syniverse was reportedly the subject of a hack back in 2016, which was revealed in 2021 - interestingly, affecting only "approximately 235 of its customers." (but no indication that many of those customers would likely be network operators with customers of their own, often numbering into the millions!).

Whilst Syniverse may not be the only MNP brokerage, this PAC function (going by shouts for help here on the Forum) is a service which has degraded greatly (from days to weeks to move networks in some cases) across many of the UK networks in recent years. Roaming, setting 3G decommissioning aside, is also a bug-bear, as is the problem of incoming caller line identity (so much that O2 quietly created a bolt-on to address that precise issue):

Reading between the lines, and borrowing from other posts by @ross_mini5 here on the Forum, I guess their question is:

• With the 7-day to multi-week port durations (and associated loss of SMS, including OTP, caller id, roaming functionality, etc) now a regular hazard of porting from one to another UK network, is it wise to attempt to port at this time?  Or is it safer to stay wherever you are and put up with the reduced levels of customer service, a case of "the devil you know...", etc?

There are also other questions: Is there is any confirmed link between the increased port-times and Syniverse's "hack attack"? If so, is there anything individual customers can do about it to improve/restore normality to porting? Are the MNO/MVNOs taking the complaints of their users back to the MNP brokerage, SMS routing and billing service companies like Syniverse? Are the delays a result of the hack, or a result of the corrective actions arising from the hack, both on the MNP/SMS side and on the MNO/MVNO (eg, O2's System 360) side?

This is not something that is easy to research, and others here on the forum may know more of the reason for some of the issues here. I know when O2 had Advisors here, their time seemed to be inordinately occupied with iWatch errors, OTP errors, roaming and charge-back errors related to roaming - and the forum regulars got very little direct feedback from the Advisors about how those errors were addressed - except when someone gave feedback on help received, eg the Facetime/iMessage fix:

• Switch off iMessage and FaceTime
• Sign out of the iCloud account (removing all the iCloud data from the iPhone).
• Reboot the iPhone
• Sign back in to the iCloud account
• Switch back on iMessage and FaceTime

Food for thought. And a question from @ross_mini5 😃