Regaining a deactivated number? Please help.

[Beanz]

As the title states, some time ago I lost the SIM card associated to my mobile number and so ordered a new one. I was completely unaware that after 6 months of inactivity on the original sim it would be recycled, and I just kind of went on with my life. This was around 5 years ago and I never really thought twice about it up until recently.

Now I’m trying to access my mums old wedding photos but the service is requiring 2FA that is, you guessed it, associated with the number. My initial reaction was to reach out to the number and see if it’s been reallocated, it hasn’t. It’s still dormant and to my knowledge has never been assigned to a new individual. This number has now become invaluable to me.

I thought surely after being a customer of GiffGaff for a decade I’d be able to just prove the number was mine with bank statements, ID etc but they’ve told me there’s not much they can do. So I got to looking online and had seen some success stories coming out of the 02 community which to my knowledge own GiffGaff and it’s pool of numbers too.

Is there anything I can do? I’m willing to pay any reasonable amount for the hassle involved in reallocating this number back to me after I’ve proved it is indeed my mobile number. There has to be some option or even a service that deals with these kinds of things, it seems to be a fairly common issue and admittedly happens due to ignorance on part by the customer

[MI5]

@Beanz 

It's a long shot but I'll ask @O2Sarah- if there's anything that can be done.

[Beanz]

Thank you very much, that would be greatly appreciated. As stated I have a plethora of proof that this is indeed my number, but I understand getting it back is a lot more nuanced than that. 

[O2Sarah-]

Thanks for the tag @MI5 

@Beanz I will send you a private message so we look into this. 

[francesca2]

Hi Sarah I'm also in a similar position in losing all my whatsapp messages and pictures which I need to recover, also happy to pay to get them back. Hoping you can help. Francesca 

[HussainNaheed]

Hi @O2Sarah- Please can you help me. I'm absolutely gutted. My late grandfather gave me his sim - A PAYG sim with a unique number. I came to use it today but I think its been deactivated as my phone doesn't recognise the sim anymore. Please can you help me into reactivating this and getting my number back otherwise I truly will be heartbroken. The sim is in my name as I had lost it and requested a new sim a few months ago.

[O2Sarah-]

Thanks for the tag @HussainNaheed 

I will send you a private message to see if there is anything I can do 😊