BT Mobile UK Trials Auto-PAC Process for Easier Operator Switching

The Mobile division of BT (BT Mobile / EE) has begun recruiting for a new “Auto-PAC Switching” trial, which they say aims to ensure that the “improvements we are putting in place give the best customer experience possible when porting a mobile number / account from one supplier to another.”

The trial is almost certainly related to the UK telecom regulator’s new mobile switching changes. At the end of 2017 Ofcom announced that mobile operators would be given until 1st July 2019 to introduce a new Text-to-Switch (Auto-Switching) process (here), which makes changing operator as easy as sending a text message.

Under Ofcom’s proposed system a mobile customer would simply send a free text message to a number for their existing operator. In reply your operator should then send a special code that can be given to a new operator in order to start the switch (i.e. there’s no need to talk with support staff). The code would then be valid for 30 days.

Ofcom’s Diagram of the Auto-Switch Process

Obviously BT’s own trial wouldn’t want to test this new process by pushing customers off their network and so it will be separate from their official mobile SIMs. Instead BT said they will provide trialists with virtual and/or live mobile SIMs free of charge for the duration of the trial.

The trial itself is due to start in February 2019 and will run until July 2019.