T-Mobile cellular service - Can you port a number anytime?

Author

Can you port a number anytime?

Ajanta

2006-10-25, 10:33 pm

I am with cingular now and am considering moving to t-mobile. If I want
to port my number, must I do it when opening the new account? Or, can I
get a t-m phone with a different number, live with both phones for a
while (temporary need), and then later port my number to t-m?

Todd Allcock

2006-10-25, 10:33 pm

At 25 Oct 2006 21:12:27 +0000 Ajanta wrote:
> I am with cingular now and am considering moving to t-mobile. If I want
> to port my number, must I do it when opening the new account? Or, can I
> get a t-m phone with a different number, live with both phones for a
> while (temporary need), and then later port my number to t-m?

You can port later. I recently ported a landline to a T-Mobile account
I've had for six years.

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Thomas T. Veldhouse

2006-10-26, 12:33 pm

In alt.cellular.gsm.carriers.voicestream Todd Allcock < elecconnec@americaon
line.com> wrote:
> At 25 Oct 2006 21:12:27 +0000 Ajanta wrote:
>
> You can port later. I recently ported a landline to a T-Mobile account
> I've had for six years.
>

So, they changed your cellular number to what used to be your home number?
What did you do with the old cell number?

--
Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1

Todd Allcock

2006-10-26, 3:33 pm

At 26 Oct 2006 16:56:20 +0000 Thomas T. Veldhouse wrote:

account[color=darkre
d]
>
> So, they changed your cellular number to what used to be your home
number?
> What did you do with the old cell number?

It was insanely more complicated than that! :-)

First, I ported the old cell number into a prepaid T-Mo phone I already
had but rarely used (on of those cheap "T-Mo SIM w/1-year expiration"
deals that used to pop up on eBay a few years ago.) I put a new
voicemail message on the prepaid phone (now with old cell number) that
informed people my cell number changed and they could reach me on the new
cell number/old landline number and put the prepaid in a drawer someplace.

The landline was actually my old business phone number that I had been
forwarding ("telebranching") to my cell anyway, so most people who
called my cell were already dialing the landline number anyway. The
forwarding was costing me $20-30/month (depending on how many calls were
forwarded), so porting saved me that amount. I should have done it years
ago!

The only complication with the port was that the number change "reset" my
T-Mobile tenure on whatever system independent T-Mobile dealers use, so
when I went to CompUSA during a sale on PDA phones, they informed me that
having only been with T-Mo only two weeks, I wasn't eligible to upgrade
(despite six years with T-Mo and over two years since I upgraded phones!)

I should've upgraded before porting, but T-Mo assured me the port
wouldn't affect my upgrade eligibility. As it turned out, when I
escalated the issue, a supervisor explained that they meant it would
affect eligibility through THEM directly. After a little forceful
negotiation on my part, T-Mo agreed to sell me an MDA at CompUSA's price
(and more importantly, at CUSA's terms; a one-year contract instead of two.

The other bump in the porting road was the prepaid- when they moved the
old postpaid cell number into the prepaid it reset the prepaid's account,
flushing my minutes, Gold Rewards status, and expiration date. They
refilled my minutes, but it only gave me the 30-day expiration date a new
account would get. When I called to fix this, they gave me my Gold
Rewards status back by adding a $100 card to my account "for my troubles"
which added 1000 minutes and extended my expiration past where it had
been before the port.

So, while the porting process wasn't 100% smooth, due to various systemic
issues, T-Mo bent over backwards to fix the small problems for me.

--
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Ajanta

2006-10-26, 10:33 pm

Todd Allcock < elecconnec@AmericaOn
Line.com> wrote:

: It was insanely more complicated than that! :-)

Thanks for the detailed feedback. Now I shall know to be alert and look
into any special issues before porting.

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