So today my 4S finally died. I'm pretty far into my contract and ATT said they'd give me an "exception upgrade." Long story short after several chats with reps they keep giving me excuses on why they can't order me a new phoen which is fine. So I would now like to just pay my ETF and switch to Verizon. So when I go to Apple to buy a 16GB Space Grey it says it won't ship until October and it asks me all my porting info. My question is, when does the port take place? I don't want them to port my number to Verizon but not have a phone until I get it from Apple. I am using a dummy phone currently on my ATT plan.
The porting happens when you activate your new phone. Here's a good gov website on number porting : http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/wireless-local-number-portability-wlnp Quick question: How much longer do you have to go in your AT&T contract?
I was with ATT and have been for 3 years. Yesterday i went to the Apple store and bought a 64GB 5S (Verizon). The Apple employee ported my number and the whole process took less than 30 minutes. I walked out with a working phone with my exact same number. My ATT account was automatically cancelled. Any remaining charges will be paid end of billing cycle. IMPORTANT: Do NOT cancel your ATT account *before* switching to Verizon if you wish to keep your number. This is what the Apple employee, the ATT customer service rep. and the Verizon customer service rep said. ATT's ETF is $325 (-$10 every month from the starting month of your contract). I checked because I was in the exact same situation as you TC. Good luck.
Yeah your line wont officially disconnect until you actually activate your new phone, so don't worry you can do the porting stuff online.