Number Portability experience thread
 

Tomorrow I get to move my phone number from ATT to T-Mobile. I'll be posting my experience here, but I'd like to have a thread where we post our experiences in getting numbers migrated over.

Thanks,
Goat

Did you see the little note AT&T put about it on their last bill? It's like they expect hoards of people to be leaving them.

I've had probably about 6 awful complaints with ATT in 4+ years - and I wouldn't be surprised if they lose customers in droves.

I'm planning on moving from Verizon to Sprint, but probably not for another week. Will post experience when I do.

I'm planning on moving from Sprint to Verizon tommorrow afternoon. Well, at least starting the move. I suspect that it'll be a few days before the backlog gets cleaned up.

"Experts" have suggested you wait a little bit before porting a number. They do expect problems early on, especially if large numbers of folks move at the same time.

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We're going to find out tomorrow. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif

I wanna move my service as well... not sure to who yet, I just wanna move for the heck of moving. Have Nextel now, need international service though.

How funny. I'm going from Verizon to Spring, and you're doing the opposite.

There was a survey last year, 52% or something of the cell customers hate their providers and want to switch. Doesn't matter which one, half the people want to leave them.

Wow, just found out my home number wasn't in one of the top 100 markets, which I find impossible to believe and can't be ported over (all the sites have a link to check)

[This message has been edited by cordelli (edited Nov 23, 2003).]

I'd like to move from AT&T GSM to Verizon purely for the coverage in the LA area. However I recall signing a two year deal with AT&T about 18 months ago. So I may have to wait til summer to switch. I only pay $40 per month for 1000 minutes of nationwide roaming with AT&T and I don't think anyone is matching that now? Yet AT&T's international roaming charges are a bit steep.

t-mobile has the get more 1000 plan for 39.99

It just goes to show that you must find a plan that matches your pattern orjust be lucky.

Without giving it much thought I chose Verizon for my daughter about six years ago. She has the $40 plan with 400 prime minutes but she uses about 1,500 minutes each month. A big chunk of that is Verizon to Verizon calls during peak time which are free.

She's a freshman 2,000 miles from home and uses the phone, her only phone, without any thought to cost, but we never have extra charges.

It's fortunitous that many of her friends are on Verizon, but it's also true that Verizon has over a third of the wireless market and most kids have cell phones.

Just a thought.

I called and did it over the phone with T-Mobile. 22 minutes of phone time - they said between 3 and 24 hours. It went smoother than I expected. Poor T-Mobile is so swamped that I got someone from their finance department.

FYI, they asked for:
a) ATT SIM number
b) My T-Mobile phone's IMEI number
c) Both account numbers from ATT and T-Mobile.
d) My ATT phone number.

Goat, why are you switching phones? If your AT&T phone is GSM, it should work fine with a T-Mobile chip. Or is your phone TDMA?

I had ATT GSM service, but have had a multitude of problems, ranging from "random phone deactivations" (ATT killed my phone for being "inactive"), being charged $1000 on accident, buying a phone online and having it shipped to the previous owner of my phone number (you'd think after having the phone for 3 years, they'd ship it to the right address). Coupled with awful customer service (the salesguy miscounted my money when I went to pick up accessories and pocketed $20 - so I went back to the store, he reached into his pocket and pulled out my $20), I just couldn't do it anymore.

I think that T-Mobile offers a better product with cheaper international roaming, cheaper data rates and better customer service. And they unlock phones and offer better equipment.

1) Simlocks?
2) Better assortment of phones?
3) Time for a new phone?
4) Cheap phone when activiating new service?

Plenty of reasons to get a new phone...

I think the point I was trying to make as well as validate is that you don't have to change your physical phone when switching from AT&T GSM to T-Mobile. T-Mobile or some other agency should be able to unlock it, right?

I may make this change someday, and I like my phone. My only problem with AT&T is poor coverage in the Los Angeles metro area. But I don't think T-Mobile is any better. I'd love to hear more about how your switch goes, Goat!

I have seen a fee may be charged for switching. Any idea how much this fee is?

MisterNice

I'm not aware of any fee whatsoever. Where did you hear about this?

Had a friend who ported a Cingular So. Calif number to T-Mobile.. .Process took 2 hours to port. His phone now rings correctly onto his new T-Mobile phone (and SIM)...

I just got back from a Sprint store, where I attempted to port my number. It didn't go so smooth...here's what happened.

I work for a major company, and we get a 20% monthly discount off of any plan at Sprint. I went to the store to switch both mine and my wife's phone. It was their first switch of the day, so they weren't exactly sure how to do it. The manager worked with the sales person to do it. While they were working on it, we wandered around the store looking at the various phones. After about 20 minutes, the sales person told me that we might as well go to lunch because it would take up to 45 minutes to port the number. It was 12:30, and we were hungry, so we did. We came back at 1:15, and the store was quite busy. We waited for the person we talked to earlier to get done. When she finished with a customer, she saw us and immediately went to the manager to say something. The two of them approached us and told us that there had been a problem with porting the number. Apparently they forgot to add the corporate discount when they put the port request in. But instead of just adding my discount to the account, they cancelled the port so they could redo it. But they didn't know that cancelling the port would take several hours. So they told me they'd call me once they were able to do it successfully, and that it might be as late as 5 or 6 until they're able to do so. Luckily it's not a bid deal for me. The store is only a few miles away, and I can just swing by after work. But if I had gone out of my way, I'd be pissed.

They were waiving the activation fee, and we got a free phone. There was no out of pocket fee for us. We're switching to a plan that gives us more minues and nationwide long distance (didn't have before). And it's about 10% less per month than we were paying before. Assuming the re-porting goes smoothly and I'm all set up by tonight, I'll be very happy. If not, I'll be a little peeved and will definitely post my experience here.

T-mobile will not unlock a phone locked on a different network. They will only unlock phones bought on their network, and will only do that after 3 months of being a customer. ATT have a very bad reputation when it comes to unlocking a phone, quite simply they will not...

But it's silly to take out a contract with T-mobile and NOT pick a phone, they have several free phones and if you don't pick a phone when you signup you can't pick one afterwards unless you add a year or more to your contract.

Note that Amazon already has added keep your old number capability to its online ordering for T-Mobile, Nextel and Sprint. Basically it involves ordering the normal way then calling your new carrier when the phone arrives. (For some reason they haven't yet established a process for AT&T.) So if you want to take advantage of Amazons really good free after rebate offers to switch to T-Mobile or Sprint, you certainly can do so. I recently got a free T-Mobile Nokia 3650 this way. Took several weeks for the rebates to turn up, but they went fairly smoothly.

Been 10 hours to no avail.

That's the next bit of information I'm very curious about. I now have my Sprint phone (see my experience above). I've had it for a few hours, but it still doesn't work. Anyone switched and it's now working? If so, how long dit it take?

quote: (T-mobile unlock) will only do that after 3 months of being a customer.

This is not a true statement. If there is a pressing need, they will unlock it immediately which in their terminology means approximately 2 weeks. Based on personal experience, do not expect the unlock procedure to go smoothly. There is way too much bureaucracy and lack of knowledge within the T-Mobile system.

BUT: Once you get the phone unlocked, putting in and activating prepaid SIMs is painless and easy.

My saga continues....

I was originally told it would take a few hours to up to 10 hours to port the number. As of this morning, it still hadn't done so. I called Sprint customer service, and they said it wouldn't be ported until 11/29...5 days after I initiated the transaction! I gave the poor customer service person a hard time, but I knew there was nothing she could do. I decided to call the store where I did the transaction (and where they told me it would take 3-10 hours). I spoke to a manager there, who was quite nice. He said that the amount of time it would take to port numbers was underestimated, and all of the cell phone companies are saying it will take 4-5 business days. The change, according to him, is due to the reluctance and slow-down of the cell phone companies in releasing the numbers so they can be ported. He said that all the companies, his included, were doing things to slow down the process as much as possible. His honesty was refreshing, but it still doesn't make the number change go any faster. At least my old phone is still working, so it's not that bad. Could be worse, I could be without a cell phone right now (and I don't have a landline).

Word from our IT folks is that Sprint is having problems porting out or in numbers...

It's been 32 hours since I called T-Mobile, and still no go. I called this morning, and they said it was queued up but told me to call back later tonight or tomorrow morning.

so, DG, does that mean that you can't use your existing service during the loong port process?

looking to going from sprint to tmobile, maybe i'll wait...

lala

Why does this not surprise me...

I can use both the ATT and the T-Mobile phones - it's just irritating.

Sprint is having to manually port in/out numbers due to some sw issue... no idea when they will clear this up.

All other network have had similar issues but resolved them fairly quickly.

So, Sprint has been charging it's customers $1.10 for months to pay for the systems and when it comes to actually performing the port they fail to deliver...

I hope I'm allowed to say that Sprint Sucks considering the new "no bashing" rules here in Travel Technology http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...m/rolleyes.gif

When Cellphone Number Liberation Day arrived on Monday, there was to have been chaos as millions rushed to be among the first to take their old cellphone numbers with them to new carriers. AT&T Wireless cautioned on its Web site that "you may want to wait for the dust to settle before you consider making a move.” Of course, that's probably what the authorities in Berlin were saying the day the wall came down.

I was eager to join the surging masses and abandon my cellular company of four years, Sprint PCS, for the potentially greener pastures of T-Mobile, a decision that had everything to do with poor customer service and absolutely nothing to do with Catherine Zeta-Jones. I

Since the government decided to force the industry to allow number switching, carriers have spent more than $1 billion to automate the process. Sprint had been adding a $1.10 charge to my bill each month since July to help cover its costs, practically daring me to switch carriers to get a return on my investment……….

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/27/te...ts/27fone.html

MisterNice

Well, at least, Sprint is honest. I'm sure I'm being charged for the same somewhere. But where? Can anyone tell.

Monthly Access 39.99
Additional Services 4.99
Roam Usage and Charges 1.38
Verizon Wireless' Other Charges and Credits 0.77
Taxes, Governmental Surcharges and Fees 4.71

Total Amount Due by 12/17/03 $51.84

Probably hidden in this:
Taxes, Governmental Surcharges and Fees 4.71


AFAIK T-mobile was the only carrier to NOT charge it's customers for portability...

I have been waiting on T-Mobile for 49 hours - still waiting

B Watson... what network were you moving from?