Unactivated SIMs expiry?

[#1]

Hi bertie/others
Just to clarify i did recieve infomation regarding number allocation , and the number IS allocated prior to dispatch,
And my guess is that the number/ or expiry is not printed on the package
1. To prevent number skimming by ebayers ect
2. No expiry date is printed ( at the moment because the network is so small and the database could handle this without the need to reharvest MSISDN ( the number ) this is about to change

See Guru Pandits ( project manager of the technology and dev team ) introduction here >
http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Welcome-News/Hello-giffgaff-Community/td-p/8167624/page/2
he states sims are preactivated ....so this leads us to beleive that Berties idea to not have a expiry date can not happen because sims will need a expiry date to be harvested for re use ( thats Gurus teams project )

But there is a way to stop the need to reharvest numbers and that is through a new type of system know as dynamic Sim allocation.
Basically this system allocates a Number at point of sale ( activation ) no number is preallocated and the sims are remotely provisioned ( which is what most of us though happened )
To change to a Dynamic sim allocation will cost a fortune but the savings will outway the cost long term.
I would also welcome some staff input to this thread. ( Gurus welcomed lol

[#2]

Thanks for popping in, solid and confirming what I posted

[#3]

@solid247 - that's useful info, thanks for posting it.

I posted a comment on bertiebat's idea post regarding extending the life of SIMs by some means - perhaps either by "refreshing them" via the GG web site or giving bulk ordered SIMs a longer expiry than one-offs.

In light of your explanation about the existing pre-allocation system - I wonder how difficult technically it would be to selectively extend the life of individual or blocks of SIMs where good reason to do so exists?

If we can save GG money and reduce waste this has to be worth exploring... 

[#4]

@pjr im just posting what we found out before so its no problem

@Cim that would be a question for the development team , as im not exactly sure on how the reharvesting of unused numbers works , but i would think a database sweep will be done via a deadline date on expiry.
And i could not say if bulk 50 packs are stored en block, or if its just done on individual Numbers sorry,
it would be nice to find out lets hope Guru's come up with a nice artical that we could question them on And remember its saving us money aswel lol 😌

[#5]

Hi Comrades,

I am glad that some good discussion is going on in this thread to go green. Thanks @solid247 for inviting me to this thread.

Here is the stuff you want to know. giffgaff don't put an expiry date on the SIMs as the SIMs don't really expire however the associated MSISDN does expire after 6 to sometimes 13 months. A project is in progress to disconnect older preactivated SIMs and recoup the mobile numbers to be put back into the pool.

Now this doesn't mean that we should throw away the unused old SIMs. We have functionalities in place (and tested last week) which allows to dynamically allocate MSISDN to a pre-activated but disconnected SIM, albeit the activation of such SIM takes a lil longer than a pre-activated SIM.

Gope's blog about Number recycling and the 6 month deactivation rule only applies to an activated SIM. Have read through it, if you haven't.

If you still got queries, fire them. I will try to respond on Monday.

[#6]

@ Guru
Thanks very much for a very quick and welcome response. Now we can carry it forward to the ideas. Its great to get information from the horses mouth and i will be having a few words with one educator lol
Thanks again

[#7]

Thanks gurupandit for dropping in (especially since I assume you are off over the weekend). 

So it appears from your answer that there is a plan for non activated SIMs (which you call pre-activated) to be able to be activated at any point in the future (and therefore never expire in practical terms).

Just one final point though,  in order for the SIMs to 'stay live' indefinitely from the recruiters point of view I assume that the new functionally would have to be in place before or at the same time you recoup the existing phone numbers/MSISDNs from unactivated SIMs.  Is this that the plan?

If there isn't going to be any expiring in practical terms then it would be a great help to those that want to keep SIMs for recruiting to know that these don't really expire and are safe to hand out at any point.

With this in mind it would nice to change all references to unactivated SIMs expiring from the T&Cs and Knowledge Base as soon as possible to stop people wasting existing SIMs.

As solid (thanks mate) has already suggested it would be nice to have a blog telling us more about the plans in this area and to promote the knowledge that unactivated SIMs are going to be safe from expiring in the future. 

[#8]

Im extstatic lol erm cheers Bertie i was almost certain this was the case but got the wrong info in the first place,grrr

So we also need some information on the sim pack ? ' Non expiring sim'
We also know now that a member could have a choice of numbers at a price of course !
Im Really looking forward to any more info from Guru's team

[#9]

Thanks for the input, guru. It also looks like the educators need educating in this instance

[#10]

I gave a new gg a sim card over 14 months old it activated no one of problem.