This morning, upon checking Aldi Mobile’s website, I was greeted with this banner –
The explanation given upon clicking is as follows:
Delayed porting and number transfers information
Due to the recent issues with Kogan Mobile, the mobile industry is seeing a large increase in the number of mobile ports which is causing delays industry wide with all providers. Ports to and from all mobile carriers are expected to be delayed for the next 1-2 weeks.
What this means is that ports that typically take up to a few hours to complete may take 1-2 days and in some cases up to 10 days. You will still be able to use your service with your current provider until the port is initiated so please make sure you keep your current SIM card in your handset and have your ALDImobile SIM card with you ready for when the transfer of your number is processed.
There are limits on how many ports the industry can process in addition to normal sales and activation activity, so please be patient if your number transfer to ALDImobile is delayed. We are monitoring activation orders on a daily basis.
What this seems to suggest is that Kogan Mobile was more popular than I imagined, and either people were very pro-active about trying to flee the sinking ship or that Telstra had severed the services in short order.
At least it seems many people are happy to port their numbers with them – the “waste-land” that is the 04 “virtual area code” here is growing all the time, and with Kogan Mobile allocating 0490 xxx xxx numbers, it seems that the 04 virtual area code is going to fill up in the near future. Numbers are a limited resource – who woulda thunk?
On the other hand, my AldiMobile SIM is now active – and how cool – the $5 included starter credit expires in a year meaning that I can purchase my bolt-on data without paying to keep the service active … cool! Much more generous than Kogan’s 7-days starter period.
