PAYG in Australia

corsablue · ‎18-06-2026

I had an EE contract in the UK, and when I emigrated out of the UK in February to Australia I changed that to a PAYG in order to keep my number. I've had the number for nearly 25 years and as I don't know if I'll be living in Aus for one year, 10 years, or forever, I wanted to keep it live at the lowest cost to be on the safe side. A PAYG number where I could make one call every 3 or 6 months etc to keep it in my name.

I had this changed to PAYG the week I left the UK.

Now that I'm in Aus, I've discovered I cannot use my PAYG sim. It connects, and I get a 'welcome to Australia' message from EE, and I receive texts from apps and banker for 2FA etc, but I cannot send text, or make or receive calls. Or connect to data.

I have credit on the account, and today on the advice of an EE operative I added some Rest of the World minutes for £3 to try and rectify this.

Still nothing works. It will not connect.

I have checked the phone is turned on for roaming, I have tried turning it on and off, flight mode on and off, manually selecting networks - the lot.

I did not activate any roaming before I left the UK, I don't think. Even though I explained to the operative at the time that my plan was I would be going to Aus.

I have a feeling this might be the problem. I think the contact rolled over to PAYG at a time I was travelling to Aus, via Singapore, and therefore didn't actually use the phone in the UK on the PAYG sim, only my contract before it ended.

Has anyone got a solution or any ideas here? I'm stumped. And frustrated.

If it's down to the activation, then why can I receive messages??

Any help is greatly received as I don't want to lose my number!

bristolian · ‎18-06-2026

@corsablue wrote:
I think the contact rolled over to PAYG at a time I was travelling to Aus, via Singapore, and therefore didn't actually use the phone in the UK on the PAYG sim, only my contract before it ended.

There's your issue. All new PAYG SIMs, which includes migrations from pay-monthly, need activation on EE's UK network before roaming is auto-enabled for use abroad. It's unusual that you should be able to receive the text message, but otherwise your symptoms completely fit.

Roaming is an account-level function, I suspect your reference to checking your phone is enabled, is probably just checking for "data roaming" - this means using mobile data whilst already roaming.

The solution here is for your SIM to be used on EE's UK network to complete the activation & roaming enablement, be that via your returning or by posting the SIM to a trusted friend/relative to do for you.

corsablue · ‎18-06-2026

Thank you for your considered reply.

I have to say it blows my mind that I might have to send the sim card to the UK for activation and get it posted back. I literally cannot get my head round that.

There must be another activation solution.

I would like to have been advised of this before departing the UK ideally.

I also don't understand how I can recieve texts!

Why can't it be activated by EE technical team? This makes no sense.

The only solution I have is to cancel the sim, and transfer to a new PAYG provider and have it sent to my parents house so they can keep the number for me.