Switching mobile phone service carriers? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Switching mobile phone service carriers?

Chris-CJ

Chris-CJ

Well-known member
Be careful!
The porting can go wrong and 2FA SMS will not work and online access to your critical mobile services (banking and the like) will be lost.
I am embroiled in this issue and the customer care has only basic knowledge and does not understand the difference between regular SMS (unblocked) and 2FA SMS (blocked).
Even worse, the Help Desk is offshore and has no clue if you give the example of a Canadian bank name from which the authentication code originates.
It is a known issue, for example TD Bank has published a "help" item on the topic in 2017.
Unfortunately, the carriers have paid little attention to this and even their L3 tech staff do not seem to have awareness.
I have reached out to the carrier exec office and let's see if that brings a resolution.
Meanwhile, am stuck doing banking the old way i.e. in person and in branch. Hopefully the issue gets resolved soon.
 
Well that's a pain in the *** if I ever had one. I've been with Telus in one way or another since 1996...Clearnet...Telus...Koodo.

Never warranted a change as they're all the same and Telus/Koodo have been decent, and still have the same number from that time.
 
What do you mean by "2FA SMS will not work"? When you try to sign in on a device for the first time you should get a text with a code, you enter that code and it authorizes your device. Are you not getting that text at all, or are you getting it but the code doesn't work? Are you using a regular cell provider (eg Koodo) or some kind of voip provider like Fongo or TextNow?
 
Sorry, but you make no sense from a technical point of view.

Chris-CJ said:
regular SMS (unblocked) and 2FA SMS (blocked).
Click to expand...
These definitions do not exist, no wonder tech support has no clue what you are talking about. SMS is SMS.
 
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Isn't 2FA SMS just an SMS sent from a specific company to provide you with a code that you enter later? Or some other variation?

It's an SMS...
 
I suspect what happened is Chris ported his number to a voip provider rather than a traditional carrier. Financial institutions will not send their verification texts to voip numbers due to security concerns.
 
danp said:
I suspect what happened is Chris ported his number to a voip provider rather than a traditional carrier. Financial institutions will not send their verification texts to voip numbers due to security concerns.
Click to expand...
Will they phone with the number? Are they just blocking SMS or do they block all 2FA authentication to voip?
 
Another possible reason - Android phones can "lose" messages when multiple SMS apps are installed.
 
Thank you for all the responses, a couple of clarifications ....
- the switch was from one mainstream cellular carrier to another mainstream cellular carrier, think "red" to "blue", not VOIP or a virtual carrier like Textnow or such.
- SMS's originating from one phone to another are NOT the same as a 2FA (two factor authentication) SMS. These originate from a CRTC approved program managed by "txt.ca" and have a fixed six digit originating number for each institution enrolled, all the banks are in this program.
 
danp said:
What do you mean by "2FA SMS will not work"? When you try to sign in on a device for the first time you should get a text with a code, you enter that code and it authorizes your device. Are you not getting that text at all, or are you getting it but the code doesn't work? Are you using a regular cell provider (eg Koodo) or some kind of voip provider like Fongo or TextNow?
Click to expand...
With carrier#1 ("red") I would get the authentication code after keying in the bank's website login credentials.
Migrated to carrier#2 ("blue") and I stopped receiving the code even tho' the bank sends them.
"Red" and "Blue" are the two major cellular carriers in Canada and the phone is on a cellular network.
 
Chris-CJ said:
Be careful!
The porting can go wrong and 2FA SMS will not work and online access to your critical mobile services (banking and the like) will be lost.
I am embroiled in this issue and the customer care has only basic knowledge and does not understand the difference between regular SMS (unblocked) and 2FA SMS (blocked).
Even worse, the Help Desk is offshore and has no clue if you give the example of a Canadian bank name from which the authentication code originates.
It is a known issue, for example TD Bank has published a "help" item on the topic in 2017.
Unfortunately, the carriers have paid little attention to this and even their L3 tech staff do not seem to have awareness.
I have reached out to the carrier exec office and let's see if that brings a resolution.
Meanwhile, am stuck doing banking the old way i.e. in person and in branch. Hopefully the issue gets resolved soon.
Click to expand...
You don't have a computer to do online banking?
I would never do banking on my phone.
 
swapped the SIM to another phone
still no luck.

if any of you gents wish to validate your 2FA SMS service, send a text message with the word "Help" (just the word) and you will get a response.
Don't worry this will not compromise your phone.
 
sburns said:
You don't have a computer to do online banking?
I would never do banking on my phone.
Click to expand...
and that is where the issue is - I use a computer and the bank sends an authentication code that allows my login to proceed.
 
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