An elderly woman died after she was unable to call for help because the phone company had disconnected the mobile she kept for emergencies . Sheila Secker , 78 , had been given the pay-as-you-go phone by her son , but as she had not used the phone for some time it had been cut off . When the grandmother collapsed in her home in December , she could not contact her family and died in hospital a few days later , the Sunday Times reports . Cancelled : As Sheila Secker had not used her pay-as-you-go phone for any chargeable services , Vodafone retired her number without warning . Mrs Secker 's son Steve told the newspaper how his mother had owned the mobile phone for 14 years , and recently topped up the credit , but had not made any calls . Shortly before her fall , Mrs Secker moved into a new home , near York , and had yet to have a landline installed , so relied on her mobile . Mr Secker told the Sunday Times ' Money section how the family raised the alarm the next day after not hearing from his mother , and emergency services were called . Mrs Secker died in hospital on New Year 's Day . When Mr Secker contacted Vodafone he was told his mother 's number had been retired , and that a 'glitch ' in the system had allowed the elderly woman to continue to 'top up ' her credit . Take heed : Most major mobile phone operators regularly 'recycle ' numbers when they have been out of use for a three to six months . 'What I can not fathom is , if Vodafone has retired a number , how can it permit money to be taken as a top-up , ' Mr Secker , 46 , told the Sunday Times . 'This is nothing more than a rip-off to add insult to injury ' . Most major phone operators regularly 'recycle ' phone numbers when they have been out of use for a certain time . A Vodafone pay-as-you-go mobile is put into 'semi-quarantine ' if no chargeable calls or texts are made for 90 days . After a further 90 days the number is disconnected , and 270 days later the number is recycled and given to another customer , with any credit on the phone lost . EE retires a pay-as-you-go number after 180 days of inactivity and O2 disconnects a pay-as-you-go phone after six months of no chargeable services . Tesco Mobile allows six months of inactivity before sending the customer a text to remind them to use their phone again , or their number will be lost .
Sheila Secker , 270 days later , died after she was unable to ring son after a fall . She had n't used her pay-as-you-go phone so it had been disconnected . Vodafone had cut off her number , but 'glitch ' still allowed top-ups .