need help in porting number from one state to another

[new026]

Hi ,I am planning to switch to Att (iphone)from Verizon,my problem is that i have a michigan number but moved to PA,i tried online ,its saying that my number is not eligible to port..Is there anybody who have done porting their number from one state to another state..plz help

 

[mkrishnan]

This is a little old, but this was a workaround posted when the iPhone first came out... not sure if it might still work?

http://www.appleinsider.com/article...ligible_mobile_numbers_to_att_and_iphone.html

Here's one more recent one:

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1485886

 

[iFerd]

The first process (I didn't read the second one) leaves you with a number that will have a different area code from the one you now live in. If that is OK, fine, but it will mean that new contacts in your new location will be making long distance calls to you, not local ones. That would be a problem for some folks; I would regard it as discourteous at best, and if I were tied to a land line with metered long distance service, I wouldn't be inclined to return calls.

But of course, YMMV.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

I had the same issue when I tried porting my VA number to WI. Good thing I dropped that new service and decided to stick with AT&T since I ended up back in VA anyway.

Point being, if it's a smaller service provider (this was US Cellular) the won't work with you.

 

[mkrishnan]

The first process (I didn't read the second one) leaves you with a number that will have a different area code from the one you now live in. If that is OK, fine, but it will mean that new contacts in your new location will be making long distance calls to you, not local ones. That would be a problem for some folks; I would regard it as discourteous at best, and if I were tied to a land line with metered long distance service, I wouldn't be inclined to return calls.

You lost me. How would one port one's Michigan number, now living in Pennsylvania, with a result being that one simultaneously retained one's old number and yet had a local number in the new residence? I understand the point you are making, but this is the whole point of the question. There's no way for the OP to port their number and have a local number, short of moving back to Michigan.

I do see where you're coming from. It's a balancing act. I have a Michigan number that I carried to Florida and thence to Illinois without changing. A lot of people who are important to me have this number, so I'm disinclined to change it. The people to whom I give it out almost invariably have cell phones with free long distance (whether work or friend acquaintances -- I only have one personal acquaintance outside my family, who are not local in any event, that does not have a cell phone). The work individuals are calling me from their work phones anyways if not their cell phones. It hasn't been much of an issue.

But in any event, I don't see how the method is discourteous, as the objective itself was always discourteous to begin with.

 

[iFerd]

We aren't on different pages. You are right that the method isn't discourteous, it is causing local contacts to have to pay for long distance calls that is (or may be), depending on who you talk to and how they contact you. If everyone is on a cell plan, it won't matter.

And I can understand how important it is not to loose contact with people who are important to you, perhaps for business reasons. I have a family member who is freelance in his occupation, and his livelihood depends on having the same phone number. I expect he'd try to do the same thing if he moved to a new area code.

I've read that AT&T will cancel your contract if you are roaming too much. Any truth to that? I presume it would only matter to them if you were roaming off their network, though.

What we probably really need is a lifetime phone number that follows you where ever you go.

 

[mkrishnan]

I've read that AT&T will cancel your contract if you are roaming too much. Any truth to that? I presume it would only matter to them if you were roaming off their network, though.

What we probably really need is a lifetime phone number that follows you where ever you go.

Yes, that's right -- they (all the providers who have domestic roaming agreements) kick you out if you are constantly on partner networks, because they have to pay the partner networks for that. For instance, I was in a little town in Pennsylvania recently, and my iPhone on T-Mobile constantly came up with AT&T (because AT&T provides partner roaming to T-Mo). If I moved there, I would expect T-Mobile to give me the boot....

As for the latter comment, I think that's really what some of us have gone and done. The nuisance / problem is that landlines still respect local vs. long distance calls. It would be nice if this concept were just done away with and we went to ten digit dialing at one rate for all domestic calls.... It would be a lot less confusing, and it would represent the current environment better. You even see a lot of the landline competitors like VOIP services offer this fairly routinely.