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General discussion

More than 1 cell phone having the same number.

Mar 30, 2018 3:27PM PDT

Today, i had to get a new cell number because another cell phone had my same number. I had my old number for 6 years, and never once had any problems with it.

How is this possible?

My carrier only recognized my phone with the number, but said that it is common for another carrier to also have the same number registered to another person.

Discussion is locked

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Very strange but not unheard of.
Mar 30, 2018 3:38PM PDT

If someone transferred your number to another phone by cloning your SIM that's one reason and from what I know you can't invalidate the SIMs you have to kill it by getting the legitimate owner a new number.

it's either that or someone screwed up at the carrier and gave your number to someone else.

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Not likely....
Mar 30, 2018 7:58PM PDT

As a former CS rep for a major cellular provider for almost 10 years, while it is possible for the number to remain active on a retired phone in error, it is not possible to have 2 active phones in the US with the same phone number.

Each carrier purchases a block of phone #'s from the FCC periodically and if a phone # account is canceled it would be returned to the original carrier even if the number is ported to another carrier at some point. That is just how it works. Not entirely certain how it might have happened exactly to the OP.