4g to 5g sim upgrade not explained anywhere | iD Mobile Community
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4g to 5g sim upgrade not explained anywhere

  • October 17, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 114 views

So here's something not covered or told to you anywhere from id mobile if upgrading your 4g phone to a 5g on.

You are told to simply insert your old sim card into your new phone and away you go. Yes, that's true unless you want 5g on your new 5g phone because if your old phone was 4g then the sim WILL NOT pickup 5g.

I only noticed this by chance some 4 weeks after upgrading when out shopping  a 5g reception area and still i was only getting 4g.

You should be told that a si  from your old phone WILL NOT work as described in the setup directions, you will only get 4g.

You need to upgrade your sim yourself to either a new 5g sim or a  Esim, which i eventually have done.

Not good enough fro. id but hopefully this will help if anyone is having the same problem 

2 replies

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  • iD Mobile Employee
  • October 18, 2025

Hi ​@mrwobble 

Thanks so much for sharing your experience, we really appreciate your feedback and completely understand how frustrating this must have been.
You’re absolutely right that older SIM cards may not support 5G, even if used in a 5G-compatible phone. While many of our SIMs are 5G-ready, some older ones might not be, which can affect your ability to access 5G services. We’re sorry this wasn’t clearly communicated

We’re glad to hear you’ve now upgraded to a 5G SIM/eSIM and are back up and running. 
 

If you would like some further support with anything. our Live Chat team are available from:

Live Chat Hours:
• Monday to Friday: 9am – 8pm
• Saturday, Sunday & Bank Holidays: 9am – 6pm
You can access Live Chat here: www.idmobile.co.uk/live-chat.
You can also reach out via our socials (Facebook or Instagram), join the conversation on our Community page, or drop us an email at socialqueries@idmobile.co.uk and we’re always happy to help.
 

Thanks

Lamiya
iD Mobile Social Media Team


  • Author
  • New Contributor
  • October 18, 2025

Thank you for the reply to this post. Maybe this fact should actually be pointed out somewhere during the process to avoid this problem as i am sure I'm not the only person this affected. 

I am very happy with id overall which is why i upgraded rather than switched to another provider which, for me, is very unusual.