Hello Huung,
Welcome to the community!
Sorry to hear your son did not notice his pre-paid service was disconnected. Unfortunately, I'm not sure whether he will be able to regain his old number. As far as I am aware, Fido/Rogers will wait between one and three months before re-issuing phone numbers (see here).
I understand Kapable-K noted 6 months before pre-paid accounts would get cancelled. However, that was when Fido still offered pre-paid services. The extended time period could have allowed pre-paid customers to top-up their accounts to regain services. Since Fido no longer offers pre-paid services, I'm not sure whether those accounts are inactive or cancelled.
That said, assuming his number is still available for migration to post-paid services, I think your son will have to go into a store in order to proceed with the migration. I encountered a similar issue with my aunt's service after the transfer deadline had passed. Since Fido no longer offers pre-paid services, there is no longer a pre-paid customer service. When I called customer service to migrate her services, they were not able to access her account because they didn't have access to pre-paid accounts. We needed to go into a store to sort her issue. In the end, we were able to migrate her services to post-paid, however, it did take quite a while.
At the store, the customer service representative told us we needed to call into customer service. After explaining that I had already spoken with them and was told there is no longer a pre-paid department, they called the validation department on the phone. After a lot of discussion, they were able to migrate her services and keep her phone number. That was back in February, though. So, it could be possible for your son to regain his old number, provided it did not get recycled.
Unfortunately, I think you will need to wait until your son returns to Canada in order to proceed with the migration. The validation team will need to speak with him in order to verify his identity. While your son might be able to call the validation team from Japan, that team may still need support from customer service to perform the migration. In addition, they may also need access to his old SIM card in order receive a verification text message for the migration.
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
Hello @huung,
Fido and Rogers stopped offering prepaid services, they made announcements and sent out messages to notify affected customers and what they can do. Prepaid customers had until February 2025 to move their services over to Chatr.
You are not able to port an inactive line; the line needs to be active to port to another carrier. If you are simply moving from prepaid to a postpaid account with the same carrier, that's called migrating.
A Fido inactive prepaid account is typically cancelled after 6 months (180 days) of inactivity, meaning no top-ups, calls, texts, or data usage. After the account balance expires, you have these 6 months to add funds to keep the account active. If no activity occurs, the account is deactivated, and the phone number may be recycled.
You will have to get your son to contact customer service directly, and they can assist him, and if the number hasn't been recycled as yet, they may be able to help him get it back. See here for all the different ways to contact customer service directly, even from outside of the country.
You should note that this forum is community-driven and is not meant as a method of customer service.
