Unlock phone to port/then port back

[Neverina270]

Hi, I am well out of contract (pay monthly android phone) and have found a sim only ee deal which ee themselves can't match.

So I realise that to get that deal and keep my number and phone I am going to have to port it out to a PAYG with another provider for 24hrs ish etc to port it back to the new all singing and dancing ee sim only deal. Please forgive my ignorance/stupidity but as I know my phone is locked does that mean I need to get it unlocked to port the number for 24hrs to then port back to ee? I am looking at giffgaff to port to/from so know I don't physically have to put the sim in the phone which is one less faff.

Thanks

[Chris_B]

@Neverina270  Why not just ask EE to change your current sim to PAYG then when you get this new contract request EE to move your now PAYG number to your new sim.    EE can move a PAYG number to a contract they can not move a contract number from one account to a new contract sim on a different account.

If you do go to a different network you’ll need the device unlocked to make sure your number has been ported to this network before you can request your pac code from this network to port it back to your new EE contract. 

[Neverina270]

• Oh, thank you. I didn't realise I could it that way. That is really helpful. Wanted to avoid the hassle of unlocking just to port out to port back but this sounds much easier.