Hi everyone,
I'm posting this here because I just spent nearly two days going around in circles with EE support, replacement eSIMs, physical SIM swaps, and calls to replace my brand-new phone—all for a issue that turns out to have a simple, 2-minute fix.
If you are switching from iOS to Android on EE and your phone shows your number as "Unknown" in settings, or breaks services like RCS/IMS/Wi-Fi calling, do not reset your phone or accept a handset replacement. Here is what is actually happening and how to fix it.
The Problem
When transferring an eSIM or moving a physical SIM from iPhone to Android, EE's network provisioning doesn't always write your actual phone number to the SIM card's internal memory chip (the MSISDN field).
* iOS handles this fine behind the scenes using Apple servers.
* Android relies on reading that number directly off the SIM card chip. If the field is blank, Android can't identify its own line, breaking activation for IMS registration, network services, and number verification.
EE support will usually tell you to request a new eSIM, swap to a physical SIM, or factory reset your handset. None of this works because every new SIM issued by EE comes with that same blank MSISDN field until it is initialized.
The Fix (Requires 2 Minutes & Any iPhone)
Android doesn't let you manually edit the SIM's stored number, but iOS does.
* Take your physical EE SIM (or set up the physical SIM card EE gives you) and insert it into any iPhone.
* On the iPhone, go to Settings > Phone > My Number.
* Confirm your correct phone number (e.g., +447...) is entered there and tap Save.
* This action forces iOS to write the number directly onto the SIM card's physical chip.
* Remove the SIM from the iPhone and place it back into your Android phone.
Once inserted back into Android, the system will instantly read the stored number, populate your profile, and provision network/IMS services properly without needing a full device reset or handset replacement.
Hopefully this saves someone else from wasting two days with EE support or sending a perfectly fine phone in for replacement! If an EE Mod sees this, please pass this upstream to the internal technical /tier-2 support KB.
