AT&T can’t restore my 20+ year phone number after failed upgrade. Number exists but won’t provision to any phone. Anyone seen this?
I’m hoping someone with AT&T/network provisioning experience has seen something like this. I’m now more than three weeks into this problem, including an FCC complaint and escalation to AT&T’s Office of the President, and it is still unresolved.
**Here’s exactly what happened:**
On July 19, I attempted to upgrade my iPhone 13 to a new iPhone. During the upgrade process, AT&T was unable to provision my existing phone number, which I’ve had for more than 20 years, onto the new phone. After multiple unsuccessful attempts, I told them to forget the upgrade.
**I returned the new phone and asked AT&T to simply put my original number back onto my existing iPhone 13.**
That’s when this turned into a much bigger problem.
AT&T **could not restore my original number to my iPhone 13 either.**
Because I needed a functioning phone, AT&T activated a **temporary phone number on my old iPhone 13**. That temporary number works perfectly for calls, texts and cellular data.
My original number, however, will not connect to AT&T’s network. **The strange part is that my original number clearly still exists:**
**- It** still appears as a separate wireless line on my AT&T account.
\-Calling it still goes to **my original personalized voicemail**.
\- My iPhone 13 still shows an eSIM for the original number.
\- Settings > Cellular correctly displays both the temporary number and my original number.
\- The temporary number works normally.
\- If I turn off the temporary line and enable my original line, the phone goes to **SOS**.
\- Under Settings > General > About, the temporary line shows **Network: AT&T**, while my original line shows **Network: Not Available**
\- The two lines have separate ICCIDs.
AT&T has repeatedly characterized this as a **provisioning issue**, but no one has been able to explain exactly what is wrong or why they cannot fix it.
I’ve dealt with stores, customer service and technical support. Eventually I filed an FCC complaint, which resulted in the case being escalated to AT&T’s **Office of the President** and additional technical support.
Still no resolution.
**Then AT&T sent me another new phone to try.**
During setup of that phone, Apple’s “Transfer Phone Numbers” screen could see the cellular plans on my iPhone 13.
The temporary AT&T number appeared normally and could be selected for transfer. My original number also appeared, but it was grayed out and specifically said:
**“Transfer not supported.”**
So at this point:
**Temporary number:** Works perfectly on my iPhone 13 and Apple allows it to be transferred to another iPhone.
**Original number:** Still exists on my AT&T account, still has my voicemail, appears on my iPhone 13 with its own eSIM, but won’t register on AT&T’s network, goes to SOS when enabled, AND Apple says “Transfer not supported” when trying to move it to another phone.
**Has anyone experienced anything remotely similar?**
I’m particularly interested in hearing from anyone familiar with AT&T provisioning:
Can a subscriber/line profile become corrupted or orphaned?
Could the number be associated with the wrong ICCID/IMSI somewhere in AT&T’s systems?
Could there be a stuck activation/order from the original failed upgrade preventing the number from registering?
Can AT&T completely rebuild the subscriber profile while preserving the phone number?
Could issuing a completely new eSIM for the original number solve this?
Is there a particular AT&T network/provisioning team that handles something like this?
And as a last resort, **could I port this number to another carrier even though AT&T currently can’t provision it?**
I’ve had this number for more than 20 years, so simply giving up the number isn’t an acceptable solution.
If anyone has encountered this before, I’d love to know **what ultimately fixed it and what terminology/team finally got you to the right person at AT&T.**