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> The problem is the rapid succession of changes to recovery phone number, country, cellular provider.

Aren't cellular providers inherently tied to the country they're in?

How do you move to another country without changing cellular providers at the same time?

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Of course you can keep your provider. It's called roaming, per OP story: "I am travelling to the UK and did not want to have *roaming* on my Australian phone."

For cheaper rates than roaming, typically you install a secondary eSIM for the country you're traveling. 99% modern phones support dual SIM for this reason

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you keep the old number forever and when travelling get a data sim only
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