Activating sim abroad

[gchz]

My 02 sim card says I am not registered with a network. I transferred my old sim to a new phone that I ordered from the UK to Spain where I am living for a few months. Will I not be able to verify my sim card because I am outside the UK? If that is the case, should I use a sim from Spain until I get back to the UK?

[MI5]

Try live chat to activate your sim http://www.o2.co.uk/contactus

[Marjo]

Hi @gchz, how are you getting on with this, did you manage to activate your SIM?

[darrengf · Accepted solution]

@gchz

From my Knowledge as this has been mentioned before,  you need to be in the UK on the o2 network to swap the sim over.

The o2 Network I believe has to see the new sim to activate it,  and Overseas network doesn’t see the Sim in the same way.

How did you get on though and Welcome to the Forum. 

[Marjo]

I've just double checked with our O2 Gurus, and as @darrengf mentions above, you can activate a SIM only when you're in the UK (and should allow up to 24 hours for the process). So it cannot be done abroad I'm afraid. If you're now here in the UK you can try what @MI5 suggested above. It's been some time now though since you posted so you might have already got this sorted @gchz. It would be great to hear how you're getting on though?

[gchz]

Hi, thanks for replying @Marjo @darrengf @MI5

I managed to sort the issue.

O2 sent a new sim to my parents UK address. My parents sent me the details of my sim, I spoke with the gurus online and they activated my card and did a sim swap. Then my parents sent the card to me in Spain and it worked perfectly. I'm not sure exactly why it made a difference for my sim to be in the UK since it wasn't put into my phone until it got to Spain... maybe because I did a sim swap? Hopefully everything will still work ok when I get back to the UK

[MI5]

Good news.
I was pretty sure it didn't have to be on the O2 network as customer service can just activate the sim on their system.

[Marjo]

Awesome to hear you got it sorted in the end @gchz! Thanks for coming back to give us an update.

[elkell23]

I have this issue - i have a uk sim, bought a new phone in greece - it won't register the sim.

so do i understand right that i have to wait until i'm in the uk to register my existing sim with the new phone?

this is a different case as i have a uk sim?

[MI5]

@elkell23 

Sounds like your phone is network locked.