SIM card deactivated from inactivity?

Benergy · May 23, 2016

I have a backup phone (Nokia 105) that I keep switched off in a drawer, just incase anything happens my S7.

I powered it up today for the first time in ~4 months, and got an error message 'SIM card registration failed', and couldn't connect to a carrier (it's an O2 pay-as-you-go SIM in the UK, had about £9 credit on it).

To check whether it was the phone or the card, I put it into my old S3, but it still couldn't connect to a carrier.

Is it possible the SIM has been terminated from not being used in months? Could my number have been reallocated to someone else?

Wavorly · May 23, 2016

Well I can only talk from my experience in Romania. There if we don't use a SIM card(pay-as-you-go) for a couple of month's it's deactivated more precisely if we don't recharge it with credit. At least that's what they told me when I asked my carrier.