"Ofcom (the UK regulator) would very much like to move towards the Irish system"

Except, presumably, the bit about people nicking other numbers. Even if you only have it for a few hours, there's probably loads of criminals that could take advantage of that.

I went to port my number from 3 Mobile to Meteor. The only verification made by Meteor was calling the number to make sure my phone rang. Within a few hours my number had been ported.

In theory I could have taken anyone's number.

this story suggests the appeal is driven by T-Mobile, O2 etc. Vodafone brought the appeal against Ofcom and 3. The other networks and BT are 'intervening' on Vodafone's side, but are not the primary appellants.

Took 2 working days to move from Tesco to Asda mobile when I did it recently. Ironically, it's not possible to get reception whilst in my local Asda for those all-important what-flavour-of-crisps discussions...

A couple of years ago I bought a new phone and switched provider, keeping my old number. They just asked me what my new number was. I paid by Laser, but that bit was done before they asked me how I wanted to pay...

Head over to a well known mobile network's store (here's a clue - it's not T-Mobile, Vodafone, or O2) and ask to take out a contract and keep your prepay number. Give your mate's number. Job done. No check.

"Anyone filching a number this way will have paid for the new SIM by credit card and so should be traceable, it added."

The porting pack from Vodafone is free of charge, so there is no requirement to enter any credit card details - just email and delivery addresses.

SIM cards from O2 are also free, so the same applies.

Regards

Nick

yeah and did anyone forget how easy it also is to read someone else's voicemail! cause people flipping forget to setup passwords. I think only meteor does it the right way--> they use your PIN as your voicemail password but the other networks only make access difficult but not impossible

Porting numbers in Ireland can take anything from 0 to 60 minutes. The port's usually complete within 15 minutes of the process being requested.

It's just a matter of dropping into a mobile phone store, proving the phone is yours if it's prepay (typically they ring you and verify the caller ID).

Port details put in and it all happens very soon afterwards!

The Irish porting system works a little like a DNS server on the internet.

When you dial a mobile number, a server checks which network it's assigned to and routes it appropriately.

So, porting a number's relatively easy.

Think of the phone number as a URL

The switch is like a DNS server

and your phone is the resolved hidden IP address.