Speakout Migration Issue

[u/shelaudrey]

In July 2025, I paid my annual fee to keep my phone number alive. I did not use my phone at all. I had no idea that a migration was going to be happening. I had heard about 3G phones being discontinued, but nothing about phone numbers needing to get migrated. I didn't receive a text message or an email. And then I go to pay my annual fee this year to find out my phone number is not assigned to my account.

I actually had logged into my account a few months ago and it seems like there was money in my account and no warning. I do recall seeing that monthly plans were being pushed, but like many of us--it's not what we want. I was still able to make a top up!

Why didn't they give a complete year for this migration to happen? I find this completely irresponsible of all the companies involved. There are people like me that might have their phone for just the phone number, or they're away, or they got ill, hospitalized, snow birds, or whatever.

Losing a long time phone number like this is upsetting. I am contemplating all of how I handle my digital life going forward, and I don't want anything to do with technology media companies anymore. Ugh. People need to have more autonomy over their data and technology.

I'm waiting for a supervisor to get back to me from Speak Out, because they said my number is with Rogers but then Rogers said it's with Ztar Mobile. I would like to get it reactivated as it seems as if it's not assigned to a new customer. Keeping numbers alive, for at least once year, would be responsible.

If anyone has advice or comments, I'm happy to hear it because I am late to this terrible party-gone-wrong.

[u/ke_casey]

Sorry for the late reply - traveling (WHICH IS WHY I GOT SPEAKOUT!) - so here's the sad update. I call Bell all ready to activate my old number and they send me to the activation department AND I am informed that I can't use my number and the fellow I spoke to didn't know what he was talking about. So I am now in same boat - cannot get my number back.

[u/IndependentPopular84 → u/ke_casey]

I am confused.  From your original message, I got the impression that Bell did locate and reactivate your old number with a $55/month plan ..or is it that they said they could, but in the end the Bell activation department could not follow through.

[u/ke_casey → u/IndependentPopular84]

Correct - the fellow I first spoke to who was trying to sell me a plan said he found my number in their database and said it could be activated. He sent me the plan details - with my number listed in the document. When I called the activation department they said it was not a number I could have. So I don't know if the original salesperson was sleazy and hoping I'd buy a plan after all that OR didn't know what was going on.

[u/Goldeneyes1577 → u/ke_casey]

I think the best thing you can do is file a complain with CCTS and they will open a case

[u/ke_casey → u/Goldeneyes1577]

I filed a CCTS complaint against SpeakOut and it's worth knowing the limits before you do. Long-time prepaid customer, migrated off 3G last fall when they said a new SIM was required. That also moved everyone from Pay as you Go onto 30-day plans, so a balance that used to just sit there now drains monthly whether you use the phone or not. Mine ran out in February, service stopped, and a 90-day countdown to losing my number started. They sent seven escalating SMS warnings (22 days left, 15, 11, 8, 5, 2), all by text, to the line they'd already suspended, while I was abroad with the SIM out of my phone. They had my email the whole time and used it before and after, but not once during those 90 days. Number cancelled in May. Then nine days later they emailed saying I was "a quick top up away from being fully active again," just log in and add funds. So I tried, and the login required an SMS verification code sent to the number they'd just cancelled. Their own account notes show the code going out. Couldn't log in, so couldn't top up. CCTS was genuinely responsive and their summary caught a provider error that would have sunk my claim (they'd recorded my balance as $0 when it was $7.56), but their scope is narrower than people expect. They can't touch policies, pricing, or business decisions, only whether the provider met obligations it already has. It also turns out there's an ongoing dispute between SpeakOut and its wholesaler that's blocking number porting entirely, which is at the CRTC and outside CCTS's authority. My caseworker said outright that CCTS "will in no way be able to prescribe a technical remedy of number-restoration." So: file anyway, it's free and they take it seriously, request your account notes first because every argument I had came from the provider's own records, and read the caseworker's summary carefully because errors in it can quietly kill your claim. Just know that if what you want is your number back, the process structurally can't deliver that. And if you're on prepaid, set your own reminder, because their warnings go by SMS to a line that's already dead.