I currently have three lines on my EE consumer account:
• Line 1: a mobile contract running until October next year
• Line 2: an Apple Watch One Number line – this is out of contract and was cancelled last month, but EE have confirmed it will not fully cease and be removed from the account until 12 January
• Line 3: a new mobile contract taken out two days ago in store
At the point of sale, I was advised that it would be straightforward to transfer an existing EE number from someone else’s account onto the new contract to replace the number it was issued with. This advice was a deciding factor in proceeding.
Customer Services have since said this cannot be done until the Apple Watch line fully drops off on 12 January. The reason given is that internal EE-to-EE number transfers are processed as “add first, remove later”, meaning the incoming number is temporarily added to the account before the unwanted number is detached. Because the Apple Watch MSISDN still exists until billing cycle end, this would momentarily create four active numbers, which the system blocks.
They’ve also said that even if the new contract’s issued number were converted to PAYG, it would still count during the process, so the account would still be seen as having four MSISDNs at once.
What I’m struggling to reconcile is:
- Why an external number transfer (PAC from another network) can overwrite the issued number instantly without breaching any limits, but an internal EE transfer cannot.
- Why this limitation was not mentioned in store, especially given the presence of a cancelled but still-active Apple Watch line.
- I’ve been told I’m “eligible for up to five lines”, yet at the same time I’m being blocked because a temporary fourth line is apparently not allowed. That feels contradictory unless “eligibility” refers to a different account structure than the one I’m currently on.
To be clear, I’m not asking to cancel contracts or take risky steps. I just want clarity on whether this is:
- a hard technical limitation of standard consumer accounts, and
- whether the in-store advice was incorrect given my existing setup.
If the answer is simply that nothing can be done until the Apple Watch MSISDN fully ceases on 12 January, I understand that — but I’d appreciate confirmation of that when taking out the contract.
@Chris_B
