Carrier and bank rule changes log

This page is the site's memory. Every time a carrier, bank or regulator moves a rule that one of our cards depends on, the change is recorded here with the date we verified it and the page it came from. New pages and re-checks are logged too, so you can tell what was true on the day you left.

Entries are newest first. A rule change always names the page on this site that was updated.

2026

2026-10-28: Comparison tool, cost calculator, foreign-phone check, and BYOD comparison

Phone plan comparison filters the public snapshot 2026-10-29.1. Phone switch cost calculator loads a plan from that snapshot. Old-account exit amounts stay a field you enter. Foreign phone on Verizon separates an unlock from network compatibility and from SIM or eSIM support. Verizon BYOD versus a new phone compares service cash and device cash over the stay.

2026-10-26: New page: Verizon for international students

Verizon for international students separates a new US number from a home number, then checks the device, the account application and the student offer. The page adds an arrival checklist and an active dual-SIM check, and it keeps the student discount scope to select Unlimited mobile plans and Fios home internet. Verizon's student page lists eligible college and graduate students, ID.me verification every 12 months, and an account owner or manager requirement. The page does not name international students, so that eligibility stays unverified. Nova Credit device financing using international credit ended April 11, 2025.

2026-10-26: New page: switch to Verizon

Switch to Verizon separates the number transfer from a new number, a device unlock, and the old balance. The page corrects the AT&T Prepaid rule: those accounts do not need a Number Transfer PIN, and their other authentication steps remain unverified. AT&T postpaid Number Transfer PINs expire 4 days after the request; T-Mobile uses a Temporary Port Out PIN generated by the Primary Account Holder. Old-carrier exit costs are now separate from a new Verizon device agreement. The old account must stay active until the transfer completes.

2026-10-26: New page: Verizon One for student apartments

Verizon One for student apartments checks the bundle against the apartment lease. The page now uses the One FAQ: the customer must be new to both Verizon mobile and home services, the mobile line is BYOD with a built-in eSIM, the price is $70 after Auto Pay or $80 without it, and equipment must be returned within 30 days or up to a $300 per-unit fee may apply. It adds the one-to-four-line total and equal-split table, a bundle-versus-separate worksheet, a move-out and roommate card, and the source conflicts to confirm at order. The student discount's applicability to One is still unverified. The page carries a disclosed CJ affiliate link to Verizon One; the 1x1 image was not added.

2026-10-21: New page: free eSIM in the US

Free eSIM in the US separates carrier trials from ad-supported tiers and paid plans with credit. T-Mobile Trial runs 30 days with unlimited data and up to 250GB of high-speed hotspot, no card. Visible runs 15 days with unlimited data and a 5 Mbps hotspot. US Mobile runs 30 days with 30GB and a 5GB hotspot but requires a number transfer and AutoPay. Google Fi runs 7 days with 10GB high-speed and auto-renews at $50. Firsty Free is 1 Mbps and 360MB a day. A trial number is not a bank number.

2026-10-21: New page: eSIM for YouTube in the car

eSIM for YouTube in the car starts from YouTube's recommended bitrates: 480p 1.1 Mbps, 720p 2.5 Mbps, 1080p 5 Mbps. At 720p one hour uses about 1.1GB, so 10GB is about 8.9 hours. Airalo's US unlimited plan allows hotspot but throttles to 1 Mbps after 3GB a day. Visible at $25 gives unlimited hotspot at 5 Mbps. Cricket Supreme gives 50GB, Verizon Unlimited Plus 25GB, T-Mobile Unlimited Plus 5GB, and US Mobile Premium unlimited hotspot on Dark Star. Saily's US page returned 403 on the check date, so its price stays unverified.

2026-10-21: New page: US phone plans for international students

US phone plans for international students starts with the prepaid line that gives a US number, then compares Tello, Visible, Total MAX 5G BYO, Cricket, US Mobile, Straight Talk, Boost, AT&T and Infimobile by data, calls home, taxes and annual prepay. Tello's 10GB plan with 300 minutes at $14 is the cheapest usable row. Visible and Total MAX 5G BYO at $25 are the unlimited rows. Straight Talk Silver names India and China. ID rules stay unverified, and Tello's plan page returned 403 on the check date.

2026-10-21: New page: cheapest calls abroad

Cheapest calls abroad separates plans that name India and China from plans that print a country count. Straight Talk Silver is the only row that names both and prints unlimited international calling. Tello's 300-minute plan is the lowest monthly entry, with India on its free list and a landline caveat. Total MAX 5G BYO is the cheapest 200+ country row. Visible is the cheapest Mexico and Canada row. Tello's plan page returned 403 on the check date; that row says so.

2026-10-21: New page: which US plan gives you the most data

US phone plans with the most data splits the question into unlimited with no high-speed cap, unlimited with a premium allowance, and fixed buckets. US Mobile Unlimited Premium is the only row that prints a promise against usage-based slowdown. Visible+ and Visible+ Pro print unlimited premium data. T-Mobile and Verizon print 50GB of premium data. Infimobile's 15GB annual card and Tello's 10GB tile are the cheapest fixed buckets per gigabyte. Rows were read on 20 October 2026; AT&T, Tello and Infimobile keep their earlier dates where the site did not answer.

2026-10-20: Decision pages rebuilt around the reader's situation

Keep number options now starts with what still has to reach the number, then the three kinds of clock; the fifteen-country table is removed, and the country detail stays on all carriers and the country pages. United States adds a situation table for OTP, stay length, device installments, family lines and an already-suspended line. SIM or eSIM opens with the four routes and what each does to the old number. No SSN adds the carrier matrix. Why OTP SMS fails abroad adds the failure-location table. United Kingdom and giffgaff add the recycling sentence from giffgaff's help article, re-read 20 October 2026. Five pages whose footer date lagged their own body checks now carry the later date: China, Pakistan, the Jazz card, all carriers, and Massachusetts. The T-Mobile prepaid page was not changed; its 8 October multi-line prices need a separate re-check against the 20 October page.

2026-10-09: Infimobile 15GB year is $108, and FREEMONTH is a port-in month

Infimobile prepaid, read 9 October 2026: the Promotional 15GB card lists $108 for 12 months. The 6-month cell on that card is still $150. Freedom's 12-month card lists $150. The homepage says a port-in gets one month free with code FREEMONTH on the 15GB, 20GB, and Freedom plans. Deal Buster, Pro Plus, the 10GB card, and Premium stay $30, $75, $75, and $120 for 12 months.

2026-10-08: Mint plans list free calling to Mexico, Canada, and the UK

Mint Mobile lists free calling to Mexico, Canada, and the UK on the plans page, with unlimited talk and text. India is not one of those three. The Massachusetts minute cell and the Illinois minute paragraph use that line.

2026-10-08: AT&T prepaid guide, 30GB at 3 Mbps then 1.5 Mbps

AT&T Prepaid uses AT&T's prepaid guide. The $25 and $35 plans are 30GB at up to 3 Mbps, then up to 1.5 Mbps. Enhanced Plus may slow when the network is busy and includes Mexico and Canada. Ultra is unlimited high-speed, with calling to 30 or more countries. A 12-month card is $240 upfront and slows to 1.5 Mbps after 16GB. Taxes and fees are extra. The Massachusetts row now uses those figures.

2026-10-08: Six prepaid plan pages linked from the Massachusetts table

T-Mobile Prepaid, Metro by T-Mobile, Verizon Prepaid, Total by Verizon, Straight Talk, and Boost Mobile now have their own pages. The 13-brand cells stay on Massachusetts. AT&T Prepaid stays in that table without its own page. Straight Talk Silver names India and China. Boost after 30GB stays may on the plan card.

2026-10-08: Illinois, and the tax overlay on California, New York, and Texas

US phone plans in Illinois uses the Tax Foundation 2025 top row, 38.32% combined, and the Open Doors Illinois sheet: 66,635 international students, up 7.0%, 5th in that ranking, India 35.6%, China 24%. Chicago's local per-line figure in that tax article is $5.00, and the four-line $100 example is $35.74 in state and local taxes. The 13-brand cells stay on Massachusetts. California, New York, and Texas keep their earlier tax and student sentences and point at the rows that match China or India.

2026-10-08: Massachusetts prepaid table, five plan pages opened

US phone plans in Massachusetts compares 13 prepaid brands on high-speed data and included minutes. Visible, Cricket, Mint Mobile, Tello, US Mobile, and Infimobile have detail pages. Straight Talk Silver and Tello name India. The Tax Foundation 2025 table lists Massachusetts at 24.10% combined. Open Doors lists 84,097 international students, India 33.7% and China 24.9%.

2026-10-08: Turkey, 200 TL, then 95 days or 180 days half-active

Turkey, read 8 October 2026, has a card for Turkcell. The TL card price page gives 60 days after first activation. Without one load or transfer of 200 TL or more, a 95-day half-active period starts. After that load, the line has 185 days, then a 180-day half-active period if the load is not repeated. Callers can still get through. Outgoing calls, SMS, and data stop even if TL remains. No load by the end, and the Hazır Kart number is canceled. A last load from 1 January through 29 March can close in the last week of December. Open Doors 2025 Fast Facts lists 9,413 students from Turkey in the United States in 2024/25.

2026-10-08: Peru, 210 calendar days when unused balance remains

Peru, read 8 October 2026, has no carrier card. OSIPTEL's news page says a prepaid line with unused balance and no recharges may stay active up to 210 calendar days. If there is no balance, each operator may set its own period. The page's examples are Bitel 8.5 months (255 days), Claro 9 months (270 days), Movistar 7 months (210 days) and Entel two months (60 days), with 15 calendar days of notice and assignment to someone else 90 days after deactivation. Open Doors 2025 Fast Facts lists 5,667 students from Peru in the United States in 2024/25.

2026-10-08: Italy, 12 months, deactivation at 13, reinstatement on 119

Italy, read 8 October 2026, has a card for TIM. The help page gives a TIM Card 12 months from activation, the last top-up, or another commercial event the customer explicitly requested. The card and number will be deactivated after 13 months (12 months plus 1 month to receive calls and SMS) if none of those happen. Free reinstatement is a request on 119 within 11 months of expiry. Open Doors 2025 Fast Facts lists 6,744 students from Italy in the United States in 2024/25.

2026-10-08: Indonesia, 365 days, a 30-day grace, 60 days to unblock

Indonesia, read 8 October 2026, has a card for Telkomsel. The terms cap the active period at 365 days. If that period ends, or the SIM is off the Telkomsel network for 90 consecutive days, a 30-day grace starts, and during it you cannot use the internet, make calls or send SMS, though you can still top up. After the grace, the SIM and remaining credit cannot be used. A block bullet gives 60 days to unblock. Open Doors 2025 Fast Facts lists 8,104 students from Indonesia in the United States in 2024/25.

2026-10-08: France, six months of validity, two months without identification

France, read 8 October 2026, has a card for Orange. The Mobicarte shop FAQ says the SIM is valid for 6 months. If you do not identify yourself on the customer space, the line will be suspended after 2 months of inactivity. Open Doors 2025 Fast Facts lists 8,698 students from France in the United States in 2024/25.

2026-10-08: Spain, six months, 40 days, and more than 54 days

Spain, read 8 October 2026, has a card for Movistar. The recharge page gives the balance a maximum of 6 months, 40 days to recover an expired balance, and says you could lose the number if more than 54 days pass with no balance. Open Doors 2025 Fast Facts lists 9,229 students from Spain in the United States in 2024/25.

2026-10-08: Colombia, two months and 15 business days of notice

Colombia, read 8 October 2026, has no carrier card. The CRC FAQ says the operator may dispose of a prepaid number after 2 months with no calls, data, SMS, recharge or current balance, and must give 15 business days of notice. If the line is not in your name, or the operator has no updated contact, the operator may dispose of the number because the notice cannot be sent. A compiled article 2.1.16.2 uses podrá for the same two months. Open Doors 2025 Fast Facts lists 10,213 students from Colombia in the United States in 2024/25.

2026-10-06: Iran, a Persian may and an English deduction of 16,240 Rials

Iran, read 6 October 2026, has a card for Irancell. Open Doors 2025 Fast Facts lists 12,656 students from Iran in the United States in 2024/25, 1.1 percent of the total, a change of 1.8 percent from 12,430. The Persian prepaid agreement says Irancell may, after notice, deduct from remaining credit or two-way disconnect or expropriate when there is no credit, if the SIM is not activated within 90 days of registration or has no non-free transaction for 90 consecutive days. The English agreement's same tab says 16,240 Rials will be deducted after three months with a remaining balance and no transactions, then the same amount every two months until the balance is depleted.

2026-10-06: Saudi Arabia, 180 days and 360 days on two stc pages

Saudi Arabia, read 6 October 2026, has cards for stc and Virgin Mobile. Open Doors 2025 Fast Facts lists 12,702 students from Saudi Arabia in the United States in 2024/25, 1.1 percent of the total, a change of -14.3 percent from 14,828. stc's mobile terms print SIM validity of 180 days from the last paid activity, and if the SIM is canceled or expired, stc has the right to re-disburse the number. A different stc terms page prints a maximum of 360 days. On both pages, 90 days is the balance from the recharging date. sawa hybrid, on the mobile list, is 15 months. Virgin Mobile's clause 3.2 says the account may be closed and the number may be reassigned after 90 consecutive days without a recharge or use. Clause 15.2 adds a further 90 days after suspension.

2026-10-06: Infimobile earn link

Infimobile prepaid: the shop, terms, and refund citations stay on infimobile.com. One CJ Affiliate link was added after the refund section, in a paragraph that says a commission may be earned. The link uses this site's publisher id. The page-level sid is sr-infimobile.

2026-10-06: Ghana, two verbs on one MTN contract

Ghana, read 6 October 2026, has a card for MTN. Open Doors 2025 Fast Facts lists 12,825 students from Ghana in the United States in 2024/25, 1.1 percent of the total, up 36.5 percent from 9,394. MTN's pay-as-you-go terms print 90 days in clause 3.8 and again in clause 8.2. Clause 3.8 reserves the right to suspend and/or cancel, and says the customer shall lose the number the moment MTN cancels. Clause 8.2 says the customer may lose the number if MTN cancels. Number for Life is a different help page, timestamped July 02, 2026: 12 months at GHS 15, or 24 months at GHS 25, marked prepaid.

2026-10-03: Pakistan recharge days and dormancy

Pakistan, read 3 October 2026, has cards for Jazz, Zong and Ufone. Open Doors 2025 Fast Facts lists 13,165 students from Pakistan in the United States in 2024/25, 1.1 percent of the total, up 19.8 percent from 10,988. Jazz's FAQ, under For Prepaid in the voluntary-block answer, says the number should be reactivated within 90 days of the last charged activity, and that after 90 days the number may be permanently blocked and reissued. A different question says the prepaid balance does not expire. Zong's in-page table prints 30, 60, 90, 180 or 365 days by amount, and a separate paragraph reserves the right to disconnect a number dormant for 180 days. Ufone's recharge page says that after validity, incoming calls and messages are what remain, and that 90 days without a recharge might disconnect the number. The 180-day clause is on Ufone's general terms, a different page.

2026-10-03: Japan number storage

Japan, read 3 October 2026, is a paid storage product at docomo, au and SoftBank. docomo prints up to 6 years from the 1st of the month after application, and calls and communications stop when you apply. au and SoftBank both print a 5-year maximum. au's contract ends when the period expires. SoftBank's ends on the last day of month 60. SoftBank prints 429 yen and does not print 税 on that page, and it does not print whether calls or texts stop. au's page says UQ mobile does not offer this suspension, and that mail already on KDDI's server is deleted.

2026-10-03: Infimobile 12-month price, Taiwan contract semicolon

Infimobile prepaid, re-read 3 October 2026: the Promotional 15GB card prints $110 for 12 months. $150 is that plan's 6-month cell. The other 12-month prices still read $30, $75, $75, $120 and $175. The terms give the end user no property or other right in the assigned number, and the number can be changed.

Taiwan: the Taiwan Mobile service contract was reopened the same day. A general prepaid card is printed as valid for three to six months. The clause that takes the number back comes after the semicolon, on the short-term card. FarEasTone's contract uses that same sentence. The three carrier cards still attach that recovery to the general prepaid half.

2026-10-01: Infimobile prepaid page

Infimobile prepaid is a US arrival line, not a keep-home clock. The shop, WebFetched 1 October 2026, prints 12-month cards including Pro Plus 5GB at $75 /12 mo, and "New SIMs must be activated within 60 days of purchase." The T&Cs, same day, print "End User will not Activate the Service outside of the Authorized Areas." and a $7 plus tax new-eSIM fee. The refund form, same day, prints seven days from activation for new customers. Those are three files. curl.exe of /plans that day returned HTTP 000. Outbound links on the Infimobile page are editorial citations to infimobile.com.

2026-09-29: The Bangladesh pages are published

Bangladesh follows Taiwan, with cards for Grameenphone and Robi. Open Doors 2025 Fast Facts lists 20,156 students from Bangladesh in the United States in 2024/25, 1.7 percent of the total, up 17.9 percent from 17,099.

The finding that shaped it: the BTRC unused-SIM recycle, as Daily Star of 18 December 2024 and Robi print it, is 11 months unused then a notice (Robi also prints 330 unused days, and 30 or 90 days' notice as applicable). A WebFetch of btrc.gov.bd on 29 September 2026 returned news and meeting notes with no prepaid inactivity day count. A BTRC-hosted PDF of the 17 November 2024 unused-SIM recycle guideline was not opened on btrc.gov.bd; an ogrlegal copy WebFetched the same day is OCR-garbled Bangla and stays unquoted. Grameenphone's recharge matrix, curl.exe SSR 160,785 bytes HTTP 200 and WebFetch the same day, sells 30, 60 or 365 days of main-account validity, then a 60-day incoming-only suspend; leftover taka carry forward only inside previous validity or that 60 days; reactivation is a later sentence, 12 months (365 days). Grameenphone's Useful Information prepaid T&Cs suspend for 365 days after recharge expiry. Those 365s are not one clock, and they are not Robi's 11 months. Grameenphone's 15 May 2024 notice is unused since 14 March 2023 plus three months after the notice, not the live matrix hold. Banglalink's prepaid recycle clock was not opened; Teletalk's Closed SIM Offer English page is a selected-customer promo.

2026-09-29: The Taiwan pages are published

Taiwan follows Nepal, with cards for Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile and FarEasTone. Open Doors 2025 Fast Facts lists 23,263 students from Taiwan in the United States in 2024/25, 2.0 percent of the total, up 0.5 percent.

The finding that shaped it: the NCC pages we opened on 29 September 2026, on ncc.gov.tw and ncclaw.ncc.gov.tw, were user-data login and interconnection text; they do not print a prepaid inactivity day count. An NCC-hosted prepaid-template URL was not opened that day. FarEasTone's and Taiwan Mobile's live service contracts print a three-to-six-month range for general prepaid, then recover the number. Product pages pick 180 days or 6 months. Chunghwa's intro, curl.exe SSR 313,729 bytes the same day, prints 180 days from apply and a 180-day reset from recharge; leftover 基本內含 can transfer after 自動失效. Chunghwa's recharge page, WebFetch that day, starts a 3% custody fee from month 7 after recycle. Taiwan Mobile's product, curl.exe 118,503 bytes and WebFetch, prints 6 months, not 180; leftover talk credit can move, and the product paragraph's custody sentence after 6 months does not print 3%. FarEasTone's product, curl.exe 171,658 bytes and WebFetch, prints a 180-day 申裝 bullet and a six-month refund blurb on the same page. Leftover NT$ is a transfer or refund after the number is already gone, then a custody fee. Chunghwa's 2019 prepaid contract PDF was WebFetched; this session's extract did not yield chapter 5 in grep, so that PDF stays unquoted.

2026-09-28: The Nepal pages are published

Nepal follows the named second-country batch, with cards for Ncell and Nepal Telecom. Open Doors 2025 Fast Facts lists 24,890 students from Nepal in the United States in 2024/25, the largest remaining sender after that batch.

The finding that shaped it: the Telecommunications Act, 2053 (1997) English compilation we opened does not print a prepaid hold clock. NTA deputy director Surya Prasad Lamichhane told the Kathmandu Post on 9 May 2026 that operators independently determine validity periods. Leftover rupees can sit while the line is already barred. The number's clock is the carrier's. Ncell's recharge page interrupts outgoing calls for 14 days after main-balance validity expires, then both directions, and a recharge during interruption resumes service; Rs 1000 and above prints 730 days. Ncell's contact-us FAQ sends a number unused for six months to Pre-deactivate, with reactivation at a shop for Rs. 100. Those are two Ncell pages. Nepal Telecom's GSM prepaid tariff sells validity in rupee bands, Re. 50 card 25 days through Re. 1000 card 690 days, and does not print a freeze ladder on the file we opened. A Supreme Court judgment of 25 Poush 2081 is covered in 24 June 2026 news; we did not open the PDF, and the carrier pages we opened do not print a hold-by-notice form.

2026-09-28: The Germany pages are published

Germany is the ninth country of the second batch, with cards for o2, Vodafone CallYa and Telekom.

The finding that shaped it: TKG section 64(4) requires the previous provider to refund remaining prepaid balance on request when the contract ends. The BGH judgment of 9 June 2011, III ZR 157/10, left deactivation of a prepaid card standing and treated a clause that reads as leftover-credit forfeiture as invalid. That remainder right is the money after the contract ends. The number's clock is the carrier's. o2's prepaid product page keeps the SIM active with use at least every 6 months, and gives 3 months after deactivation to collect remainder; o2's July 2026 AGB 6.3 is a six-month window to consume Guthabenkonto credit from each transfer. Vodafone's CallYa help page says unused longer than 90 days can be terminated, with an SMS and 4 weeks to object, then a lock and a payout. Telekom's prepaid AGB dated 9 January 2025 lets Telekom terminate a no-minimum-term contract with one month's notice; paid remainder is refundable; gift credit stays out of that refund. The Telekom validity help page returned a 491-byte shell to curl on 28 September 2026, and a later curl timed out.

2026-09-28: The United Kingdom pages are published

United Kingdom is the eighth country of the second batch, with cards for EE, giffgaff and Three.

The finding that shaped it: Ofcom lets a provider recycle an unused PAYG number, and the wait varies from about 70 days to six months or longer. That range is the document Ofcom published on 15 June 2023. The number's clock is the carrier's. EE's PAYG network terms dated 10 December 2025 disconnect the SIM at 180 days without a Connection Action, and forfeit the number and credit. EE's help page, fetched the same day, adds a 160-day text, hibernation at 180 days, 90 days to call, and a close at 270 days. giffgaff's help article deactivates a SIM after 6 months without a qualifying act; the SIM cannot be reactivated; a PAC is available for 30 days after deactivation. The live terms page at giffgaff.com/terms returned an Incapsula challenge to WebFetch and to curl on 28 September 2026. Three's support page requires 1 chargeable activity every 180 days on the mobile network, not Wi-Fi, and says a disconnected PAYG number cannot be reconnected. Three's PAYG terms effective 21 May 2026 also speak of a 6 month period without a voucher or chargeable events.

O2's PAYG terms at 7.1 disconnect after any 6 month period without chargeable activity and give a new number on reconnection. Vodafone's help page uses 180 days and says a disconnected Pay as you go number cannot be reactivated. Lyca, Lebara, Smarty and Tesco Mobile were not opened as T&Cs this round.

2026-09-28: The Canada pages are published

Canada is the seventh country of the second batch, with cards for chatr, Koodo and Freedom.

The finding that shaped it: the Wireless Code's seven days keep a prepaid account open, and they keep unused balance, after the commitment period ends. Telecom Decision CRTC 2020-91 quotes rule J.1. and states that its purpose is not indefinite carry-over of prepaid balances. The number's clock is the carrier's. A new chatr account that is still inactive on day 58 after activation is deactivated. Koodo cancels after ninety days without an active base plan, or fifty-eight days for new activations that are not renewed after the first thirty days of service. Freedom's prepaid billing page keeps incoming calls and texts after a missed plan top-up, then fully suspends, and reserves the number for 90 days after suspension.

Rogers' own prepaid page, checked the same day, sends prepaid customers to chatr as of 20 February 2025. Bell's live help page states the seven-day restore of unused funds; a 90-day deactivation in November 2022 terms was not treated as a 2026 card. Public Mobile's live terms page returned a Cloudflare challenge to WebFetch on 28 September 2026.

2026-09-28: The Mexico pages are published

Mexico is the sixth country of the second batch, with cards for Telcel, Movistar and AT&T.

The finding that shaped it: the year in the statute is a year for unused balance, not a year for the number. Article 185, fraction XVI, of the Ley en Materia de Telecomunicaciones y Radiodifusión published on 16 July 2025, requires that unused prepaid balance be credited onto recharges made within the year after it expires. Section 5.4.1 of NOM-184-SCFI-2018 adds a cancellation condition the statute's fraction does not contain: where balance is still pending to be consumed, the provider may cancel only once more than 365 days have passed after that balance expired. The sentence still cites article 191, fraction XVI, of the earlier law.

The number's own clock is the carrier's, and the three we could read do not start it on the same day. Telcel's Amigo policy gives 119 days of incoming calls and texts from the day after the balance expires, then 246 days with nothing in either direction; received calls totaling 60 seconds restart the 119, and frozen balance is 365 days from the original expiry. Movistar's contract registered on 4 February 2026 keeps the line active on any incoming or outgoing traffic even with no paid balance, then 180 days from the last traffic, or 365 if frozen balance is already there when inactivity starts. AT&T's prepaid plans page cancels a line with no balance after 90 days, and freezes a remainder for 365 days counted from the day after validity ends.

AT&T's recharge lineamientos and its prepaid plans page both returned HTTP 403 to curl on 28 September 2026. A browser fetch the same day returned the plans page, and that copy is what the card quotes. Telcel is quoted from the carrier's lifecycle policy, not from a PROFECO contract.

2026-09-28: The Brazil pages are published

Brazil is the fifth country of the second batch, with a card for TIM.

The finding that shaped it: the floor of Brazil's ladder is the regulator's, and the middle rung is the one worth carrying abroad. A carrier contract can leave that rung out. The Regulamento Geral de Direitos do Consumidor, which took full effect on 1 September 2025, allows a suspension fifteen days after the carrier notifies the customer that the credit has ended, and then requires mobile carriers to guarantee incoming calls and text messages for 30 days from the start of the suspension, with the number itself maintained. Sixty days after the suspension begins, the contract may be rescinded with prior notice.

The credit rules sit in the same regulation and change the arithmetic for anyone leaving: thirty days is the minimum validity a top-up may carry, carriers have to offer 90-day and 180-day credits at reasonable prices, and a new top-up revalidates unused credit that had already expired, at whichever of the two periods is longer.

The divergence that made the card worth writing: TIM's prepaid contract, registered at a Rio registry office on 12 August 2026, prints the same fifteen and sixty days, and its suspension clause blocks received calls and texts from the first day without mentioning the thirty-day guarantee. The card quotes both documents side by side and lets the reader see which one gives them the window.

2026-09-28: The South Korea pages are published

South Korea is the fourth country of the second batch, with a card for U+ u mobile.

The finding that shaped it: the readable Korean hold is a suspension you ask for. The subscription stays open and the service is switched off, and U+ u mobile's help center, an MVNO on the LG U+ network, publishes the terms of that state: twice a year within a total of 180 days, a base charge of 4,400 won a month including VAT and pro-rated in the month the suspension starts or ends, and incoming calls with voicemail available for the first thirty days. Suspension is cheaper rather than free, and it is capped, which is the difference from Nigeria's line parking, where the rules state no fee and no cap. China's 停机保号 is the same shape, bought by the month.

The same help center carries the line no other carrier we have read publishes: if the account holder is abroad, a family member or acquaintance in Korea can call the customer center and the suspension is processed through that call. Two doors close in the other direction, and both are stated on the same site: a USIM cannot be activated online from abroad, and an eSIM cannot be changed while your residence or stay is outside the country.

Source reality for this country: SK Telecom, KT and LG U+ publish subscriber terms as PDF documents whose Korean text layer does not survive extraction, so nothing on the page is quoted from the three network carriers and the 180-day figure belongs to the MVNO whose article we could read. Whether a long stay abroad counts as a documented reason for a longer suspension is a question the military-service article on the same help center does not answer, and the page does not infer it.

2026-09-28: The Vietnam pages are published

Vietnam is the third country of the second batch, with a card for VinaPhone.

The finding that shaped it: Vietnam runs two clocks, and only one of them answers to money. The paying clock is the one VinaPhone's policy page publishes: outgoing service stops when the account's validity ends, ten days follow in which incoming traffic still arrives, and a two-way suspension on day eleven opens a retention period the page itself divides into thirty days attributed to state regulation and fifteen days the carrier grants on its own. Forty-five days after the two-way lock, which is day 56 if the count starts when validity ends, the number is canceled and reused.

The second clock is the state's, and a top-up does not stop it. Under Circular 08/2026/TT-BKHCN, effective 15 April 2026, subscriber information is verified against the national identity system, including a facial biometric. For H2H numbers of Vietnamese citizens outside four earlier clauses, the Government Portal's account gives 30 days to notify and 60 days to the one-way suspension, both from the effective date, then 60 days from that one-way suspension to finish verification, then termination five days after a two-way suspension. Those steps end at termination. VinaPhone's fifteen-day restoration window for an unpaid balance is a different document. VinaPhone's own prepaid page states a different sequence when the registration does not match the rules: 15 days to a one-way stop, 15 more to a two-way stop, and 30 days after that to termination.

Source reality for this country, recorded rather than smoothed over: Viettel's saved responses on 28 September 2026 were a short script that sets a cookie and reloads, with no policy text, and MobiFone's and Vietnamobile's public pages are navigation without a retention policy, so the carrier policy we could quote is VinaPhone's. The gazette copy of Decree 115/2025/NĐ-CP downloads in a legacy Vietnamese encoding whose diacritics do not survive extraction, so that decree is cited nowhere on the Vietnam page.

2026-09-28: The Nigeria pages are published

Nigeria is the second country of the second batch, with a card for MTN.

The finding that shaped it: Nigeria is the first country here where the regulator writes the clock, a request to park the line, and a warning in the same document. The Quality of Service Business Rules, in the version reviewed in August 2026, place the threshold under PRE-PAID: a line may be deactivated after six months without a revenue-generating event, and if that continues another six months the subscriber may lose the number, except where a network fault prevented the event. The same prepaid section lets a subscriber with proof of a good reason for absence request line parking, and the definitions list Parked Numbers as a revenue-generating event. The rules do not say that listing freezes the twelve-month count, and they state no fee. They do require fourteen days' notice before a churn and an upload of churned, swapped and blocked numbers to a national register within 24 hours.

Two details changed how the page is written. Incoming calls and incoming SMS are named as revenue generating events, so a Nigerian line can be kept alive by traffic arriving on it, which is the reverse of Globe's contract in the Philippines. And a recharge on its own is excluded, so topping up without using the line starts nothing.

Only MTN publishes a page our clients could read. Its Keep My Number table prices a year at 3,500 naira, which is well above the figures that still circulate in third-party guides, and the card prints MTN's own table with the date we read it rather than the circulating numbers. Airtel's site is a client-rendered shell, Glo refuses every client we have, and 9mobile, now branded T2, publishes a FAQ, terms and a code of practice that say nothing about line validity.

2026-09-27: The Philippines pages are published

The Philippines is the first country of the second batch, with cards for Globe, Smart and DITO.

The finding that shaped it: the rule everyone quotes for the Philippines is about the load, not the line. The NTC, the DICT and the DTI signed the 2017 joint circular to set a one-year expiration for prepaid loads, and that is a statement about credit, not about how long a connection survives. The connection is the carrier's own clock, and no two carriers here agree: Globe disconnects 120 days after the balance reaches zero or a year after the last top-up, Smart allows 180 days from zero balance and says incoming calls and text messages keep arriving while the window runs, and DITO cuts the subscription at 90 days below one peso, then blocks and blacklists the number permanently.

Globe's contract carries the sentence we have not read anywhere else. Its prepaid SIM terms exclude incoming calls, outgoing calls, texts and data usage from what keeps the card active, in terms that leave no room for reading a received message as activity. A number kept alive purely by arriving verification codes is therefore on the shortest clock it can be on, and looks healthy the whole time.

Two limits are recorded on the page rather than smoothed over. The NTC's own website answered our requests with HTTP 403, so the circular is described from the copy its Region 7 office publishes, whose text layer is a scan and is not quoted. And whether a received text resets the clock at Smart or DITO is not answered by any document we could read.

2026-09-27: The glossary is published

The glossary defines 31 terms in one paragraph each, from porting and number parking to OTP, short codes, eSIM, MVNO and the two conventional names for suspend-and-hold. It also defines this site's own vocabulary: what unverified means, what the two dates at the foot of a page are for, and what a rule card is.

It is the last of the site's page types to go live, and the only one whose purpose is to be quoted rather than read in order: each definition is written to stand alone, and the page carries DefinedTermSet structured data parsed from the same headings a reader sees.

2026-09-27: The arrival hub is complete

Five pages are live under US phone plans: getting a US phone plan without an SSN, SIM card, eSIM or US prepaid plan, and state pages for California, New York and Texas.

The finding that shapes the cluster: the carriers publish their money rules and leave the document rules to the campuses. T-Mobile states that for prepaid "a credit check is not required, and no deposit is needed to activate service", while a postpaid plan requires a credit check and may require a deposit; AT&T titles its prepaid page "No Annual Contract, No Credit Checks". Neither page says which identity documents a store will accept, and that is where university international offices carry the answer.

The state pages carry the Tax Foundation 2025 combined wireless rate (California 26.21%, Texas 30.83%, New York 33.96%) and the Open Doors 2025 student counts with each state's leading places of origin.

The Google-policy gate blocked the first version of the three state pages at 73% mutual overlap, which is the scaled-content shape it exists to catch; they were rewritten with distinct structure and state-specific argument before publication.

2026-09-27: The verification-code hub is complete

Six pages are live under bank OTP abroad: the primer why OTP SMS fails abroad, which banks accept a VOIP number, and cards for Capital One, Bank of America and Chase.

The finding that shaped the hub: banks publish conditional answers rather than yes-or-no ones. Capital One requires a US mobile number, rules out VOIP and Wi-Fi services in writing, names the carrier's short-code filtering as a failure it cannot fix, and says delivery abroad "may not be able to" happen depending on coverage. That last wording is why the policy cells on these cards gained a fourth value, Conditional, alongside yes, no and unverified.

Two attribution errors were caught by the quotation gate during the build and fixed before publication: Chase's email-code setting had been attributed to Bank of America in the primer, and a page title of ours had been quoted as if it were the bank's words.

2026-09-26: China Unicom no longer inherits the fixed-line freeze

The government page for the 电信服务规范 states "电话号码冻结时限最短为90日" in the fixed-line appendix. The mobile appendix was not on that page. China Unicom no longer presents that sentence as Unicom's own freeze, and its clock for a 90-day national floor has been removed. The ninety days remain on the Beijing Mobile contract and the Shanghai Telecom agreement, named as those documents.

2026-09-22: United States pages published, and the keep-your-number hub completed

Keep your US number while abroad and four cards are live: T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T and Google Voice. The finding that reshaped the cluster: Verizon's support page rules out suspending a mobile line for a long period out of the country, while T-Mobile's seasonal suspend bills the full monthly plan charge through the suspension and is capped at two 90-day periods a year. Hold, park, port or let go now compares the four routes across India, China and the United States.

2026-09-22: China pages published

Keep your Chinese phone number active and its three carrier cards are live. China runs the opposite default from India: holding a number runs through 停机保号, suspend-and-hold, a service you apply for and pay for. China Mobile publishes its hold fee and states on its own page that a hold period has no maximum while the account stays clear of arrears, which corrects the twenty-four-month figure that circulates widely. China Telecom publishes the ninety-day freeze and its payment terms; its provincial hold pages refused three clients. China Unicom served empty shells to all three, so its card carries the regulations we could read and the account of what was tried. Two claims in this entry were corrected on 26 September 2026: see the entry above.

The standard referenced here is Order No. 36 of the Ministry of Information Industry, the 电信服务规范. Its freeze sentence, "电话号码冻结时限最短为90日", sits in the fixed-line appendix; the mobile appendix was not on the page we read.

2026-09-22: India carrier cards published, and the all-carriers table opened

Cards for Jio, Airtel, Vi and BSNL are live, and the combined table at all carriers opened with them. Jio, Airtel and Vi each publish their non-usage rule in full, in regulatory or terms documents rather than on their FAQ pages. BSNL's site did not respond to three different clients on the day, so its card carries the regulator floor and an account of what was tried.

2026-09-22: TRAI notifies the Thirteenth Amendment

TRAI notified the Telecom Consumer Protection (Thirteenth Amendment) Regulations, 2026, which extends the requirement for voice-and-SMS-only special tariff vouchers to shorter validity periods. The Twelfth Amendment had already required at least one such voucher at up to 365 days. We have the press release and not the notified text, so no rule card has changed yet. Source: TRAI press release.

2026-09-22: India country page published

Keep your Indian phone number active while abroad sets out regulations 11, 12 and 14 of the Telecom Consumers Protection Regulations, and separates the deactivation floor, which did not change in 2025, from the voucher validity caps, which rose from 90 days to 365 days with effect from 22 January 2025.

2026-09-22: site launched

Still Reachable goes live with its editorial method, its page templates and this changelog. No carrier cards are published yet. The first cards, for India and China, will be added here as each one is verified against official pages, followed by the US state pages for California, New York, Texas, Massachusetts and Illinois.