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Is Number portability within T-Mobile Allowed?

pranu

Mar 3, 2004, 3:51 PM
Can I do the following


  1. purchase a new T-Mobile line.
  2. Move my current number to my new line
  3. Cancel my current line


Or am I trying to be too smart for my own good?

This way one can buy a new phone at new customer rates AND keep their number!
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southwestcomm

Mar 3, 2004, 6:31 PM
Nope, can't be done. You have a current account, which is based on your social. You can have a spouse sign up under their name and social and do it that way....
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pranu

Mar 3, 2004, 6:37 PM
Interesting so if my wife signed up for a new line - I can transfer the number to her account!

Sounds like something totally doable - time to call 611 and make sure they confirm too.

If one CSR says it can be done - can hold T-Mobile to that?
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southwestcomm

Mar 3, 2004, 10:46 PM
No CSR will confirm this. It is called "ghost churn". Merely go to a TMobile dealer and have your wife sign up under her name and social and have your number ported to her account. If you are under contract you will be billed for early deactivation. As soon as the number ports it cancels your contract.
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benhur

Mar 5, 2004, 6:25 PM
Interesting idea. What about a shared plan? My fiance want to come over from Verizon. Could she sign up for a shared plan and I would port my number over to the second phone?
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pranu

Mar 6, 2004, 12:02 AM
OK! so I just ordered a new phone from Amazon in my wife's name.

fingers are crossed! I hope I can keep my number!!!

I know I have taken the risk of getting a brand new number!

Tell me this - how good is the training of all CSRs? Can I trust that if one CSR tells me that it can't be done then it really cant be done?

Should have the phone by Monday. Wonder if the other line will be activated by then!

Thanks all! Will keep you updated if this works!
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coowguy

Mar 9, 2004, 8:32 PM
pranu said:

Tell me this - how good is the training of all CSRs? Can I trust that if one CSR tells me that it can't be done then it really cant be done?


With any company you go to that is service based in call centers you are going to get your schmucks and you are going to get your great ones. It really depends. We do go through an extensive and rigorous training regimen that can last almost up to 2 months.
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kuroi_tora

Mar 10, 2004, 8:46 PM
Actually it won't even let you do that. Prior to requesting the port, an query is run to determine whether or not your number is even capable of being ported in. Since the number is already a T-Mobile number, the system wouldn't even process the request.
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phonepimp3376

Apr 7, 2004, 11:34 AM
Also, you could only port a number from an account you own to another account you own... YOU own the number under WLNP... putting it in her name would not be allowed, even if you COULD push the port request, which you cannot.
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tmobilerep

Mar 6, 2004, 11:23 AM
Starting March 7th all customers whose accounts are current and who have been on a $39.99 individual / $69.99 FamilyTime rate plan or higher for 12 cumulative months will be eligible to participate. In order to redeem the upgrade rebate, eligible customers must sign (or verbally agree to) a one-year contract extension, fill out the upgrade rebate form and mail the upgrade rebate form in per the upgrade rebate form instructions.
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pranu

Mar 6, 2004, 12:28 PM
Darn! I just ordered a T610 with a new line yesterday! Lets see what deals they come out with for me. Maybe I might return the phone and cancel the new line then.

Thanks for the heads up! Will be sure to check in the AM tomorrow.
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moobak

Mar 10, 2004, 1:47 AM
What you're doing is called 'phantom churn', or 'ghost churn' and is AGAINST T-MOBILE POLICY. You're bacically frauding the company to get a free phone.

Put it this way, you get a free 300 dollar phone, on a 29.99 plan with a 1yr agreement. Thats only 350 dollars... so they're not even making profit until the second year of service! Plus commision fees, labor, storage, power, regulation fees, the list goes on.. the fact is, wireless carriers don't make money on a customer until they either go over their minutes, get charged on network roaming, or are on service for several years.
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pranu

Mar 10, 2004, 3:46 PM
Hmmm...Fraud is a pretty strong word.

Besides if it is against T-Mobile policy then why would they allow the "ghost churn"

Also yes I have been with T-Mobile for almost 3 years now and been without a contract for a fair bit. I have gone over my minutes a fair amount of times, and I have paid them their EXORBITANT international roaming charges in emergencies too.

Also if the logic that the cost of the phone is not recovered with just a 1 year contract and they need a customer to stay with them longer to actually break even is true - then I do think they need to seriously re-evaluate their business policies.

Clearly there are smart ppl running the business and they would be making some money when a 1 year contract expires.

A...
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moobak

Mar 26, 2004, 9:59 PM
AT&T Wireless, in my opinion, treats their customers well. We offer the Customers First 'New gear every year' promotion which gaurantees a free phone every year, what does T-Mobile have?
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pranu

Mar 27, 2004, 1:53 AM
Ah! Where do I start! This post seems so much like a bait to bash ATT!

Let me just list a few things that customers such as me find useful!

1. For the same discount on phones I much rather sign only a 1 year contract (T-Mobile) as opposed to a 2 year contract (ATTWS)

2. Customer Service -
a. Hold times waiting for a ATT CSR are MUCH longer than T-Mobile
b. The sample space of ATTWS CSRs that I had to deal with were FAR FAR FAR FAR.....FAR FAR WORSE than any T-Mobile CSR I have ever dealt with.

3. Upgrades - T-Mobile offers customers who have completed their year of service the option to upgrade and sign a new year of contract. The upgrade is at the same cost of whats available on their website - decent rates if not the best. W...
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dtownsound8

Mar 28, 2004, 8:21 PM
haha.. awesome post 😎
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moobak

Mar 29, 2004, 12:03 AM
Hey, don't be a jerk pranu, jeez, I was just asking and suddenly you spout off.

1) Verizon has the 'New every two' promo, free phone with 2yr agreement. T-Mobile must'nt offer good enough phone prices for you, since you seem to want to cancel and restart new service so badly. 😛

2) ATTWS is also twice as large as T-Mobile. We have not been heavily in que for months, the worst I saw it was when they were transitioning a bunch of reps to GSM Care, and the ques were less then 5 minutes still.

3) Please elaborate on what you mean, I don't understand what you're saying about sample space, sorry.

4) That, is a trade out that AWS was doing just for the T68i, due to frequency issues with the phone. It has nothing to do with our upgrade p...
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pranu

Mar 29, 2004, 1:14 PM
Moobak:

Firstly if you took it personally then I do apologize. I have this slight ill feeling toward ATTWS - you obviously saw that in my post - but I never meant it to you directly or indirectly.

In response to the observations

1. In a world of demand and supply - I demand to be paid to use my phone. Unfortunately the supply side can only do best at give me the phone for free. Not exactly what I want - but I am going to try my best to pull the confluence of the demand and supply curves as much to my side as possible. Thus if by trying a thousand ways I can get a slightly cheaper deal - I will. Especially since I know to me this is a cost I bear almost every 6 months.

2. Its fantastic for ATT to be twice as large as T-Mobile and...
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MW2

Mar 29, 2004, 6:02 PM
5. Refer point 1 again. And to elaborate a bit further. T-Mobile offer phones on their website at a MUCH better price than I have seen with other carriers. But AT THE SAME TIME - I do know that its EVEN CHEAPER for me to buy it from Amazon. I would love to have a best of both world's - as I have mentioned in a lot of my posts - I want to keep my number and get Amazon's prices.


when did t-mo ever carry better prices then attws? i visit both sites often and i don't remember seeing t-mo having better prices.

a quick compaire on prices today:
attws:
se t616:$49.99 via instant rebate
(the only phone the both have in common atm, sorta, 😛 )
attws also has 10 phones for free via instant rebate (just counting gsm o...
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pranu

Mar 29, 2004, 6:12 PM
It comes down to the $ value you put on the extra 1 year contract that you have to sign with ATTWS.

It surely is way more than $50 - which would make T-Mobile a lot cheaper.

Gotta compare apples to apples 🙂


Selection - TOTALLY Agree - ATTWS and Cingular have far more choice than T-Mobile. Absolutely NO ARGUMENTS there.
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moobak

Mar 30, 2004, 1:29 AM
When you discount a price massively, business sence DEMANDS that you require some sort of gaurantee from a customer that you will stay with them for a while.

Lets not get this into a fight AWS vs T-mobile, both have great traits and offers. I'm again sorry you had problems with AWS (I work for them as well), and hope to see you when T-Mobile merges with Cingular, as the eventuality will force them to. 🙂
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moobak

Mar 30, 2004, 1:31 AM
By the way, I heard you as a consumer demand to be paid for using your phone service? Wow, we make jokes all the time that customers call up and demand we pay them to use our service all the time, never knew anyone actually felt that a company pay the customer to use THEIR service. 😛
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pranu

Mar 30, 2004, 6:57 AM
😁 😁 wouldn't you love to be paid to do anything you do - say brush your teeth in the morning?

And when the possibility actually exists - then why not? The telecom companies discount things so much that dealers such as amazon give you money back after rebate - thats literally paying me to use their service, right?
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pranu

Mar 30, 2004, 7:03 AM
moobak said:

Lets not get this into a fight AWS vs T-mobile, both have great traits and offers. I'm again sorry you had problems with AWS (I work for them as well), and hope to see you when T-Mobile merges with Cingular, as the eventuality will force them to. 🙂



Hmmmm... so you are of the opinion that in the US we will have one GSM giant and perhaps a couple of other CDMA/TDMA players when the industry matures. I wonder how that would work out - doesn't sound too exciting to me!
🙄 🙄
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JDigital

Mar 30, 2004, 1:22 PM
In regard to T-Mobile merging with Cingular, I don't think you are necessarily right... that's not to say that it could never happen, but it seems that T-Mobile, from what I have seen of them and their management, has no intention at this point of being acquired. They are putting a lot of money into fleshing out their network quickly, and their strategy must be paying off, because they added 1 million NET subscribers in just the fourth quarter of 2003. I think it was 3300 cell sites that they put up in 2003, and they have plans for 4000-4500 this year. Like I said, if they get into money trouble and can't compete with Cingular, then anything could happen, but we shouldn't be rooting for that, because having two nationwide GSM carriers wil...
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pranu

Mar 30, 2004, 8:06 PM
Hey! Any chance of getting an idea of the spread of these new cell sites?

I also remember reading a report on Deutsch Telecom and how T-Mobile USA is the one child doing fairly well. So I kinda agree on the hypothesis that a buy out is unlikely.

It would be crappy if it were to happen. ☚ī¸ ☚ī¸
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ZuliViolet81

Mar 30, 2004, 9:03 PM
Hi,
I am currently a Verizon wireless customer and I have very bad reception. I figured that if I am going to pay $39.99 plus taxes a month for only 400 min I might as well switch to T-Mobile since they offer 600 min for $39.99.
I really want to switch, but alot of people say T-Mobile offers really bad reception and Verizon is "the best". I'm not so sure about that. Anyway, please tell me if you guys are satisfied with T-Mobile and what phone would be good.
Oh a friend of mine has the sidekick and says it gives really good reception. Does that mean that I will have that good reception with any other phone from T-Mobile?
Thanks for your input.
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MW2

Mar 30, 2004, 11:03 PM
here in st. louis all of the gsm carrier's (attws, cing, t-mo) have awesome reception, especially over the cdma carriers (vzw, spc).

the best thing to do is ask any of your family & friends who have t-mo (or any of the other gsm carries, : P ) and see. all the carriers give you some sort of a trial period so you can always take advantage of that and see for yourself too.

hope that helps.
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hanz

Mar 31, 2004, 12:17 AM
call cust care 1-800-937-8997 and they can tell you how the reception is where you live any nokia gets good reception and there is a 14 day trial peroid
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rtx

Mar 31, 2004, 1:40 AM
My employer offered what I thought was a good deal to use Sprint. I thought about it and decided to stay with T-Mobile. The reason why I stayed with them was simple, I don't have any complaints. Customer care is friendly and actually resolves issues and the main incredient, reception, in my Southern California are, Las Vegas an Dallas is exceptional. In some markets there is a promtion of 1000 anytime minutes for 39.99 ask about it.
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Aleq

Apr 1, 2004, 11:26 AM
Post your zip code and I'm sure some TMobile rep will be more than happy to check how your coverage is likely to be. FYI, I was with VZW for three plus years and I was amazed at how much better coverage is with TMobile when I switched over--not to mention the money I'm saving every month without all those cute l'il "extra" fees VZW was so liberal with... 🙄
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ZuliViolet

Apr 1, 2004, 2:16 PM
"I was amazed at how much better coverage is with TMobile when I switched over--not to mention the money I'm saving every month without all those cute l'il "extra" fees VZW was so liberal with..."
That is exactly what I'm talking about.
Well at least that's what I'm hoping I would get with a new carrier.

My zip code is 10455
Bronx, NY
So I'm looking to see if T-Mobile offers good reception around this area.

Thanks,
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d2alio

Apr 1, 2004, 2:42 PM
I decided to give T-Mobile a chance here in Long Beach, CA because I figured that with mainly doing only local calls and driving to nearby distances the reception would be just about as good as Verizon. I was wrong.

At home I actually get 100% signal all the time. Once I start driving in to neighboring cities the reception steadily drops lower and lower, even when I'm only about 20 miles away from home.

Admittedly, I signed up for T-Mobile because of the more minutes they offer and a better phones selection that they had over Verizon, which was my next choice.

However, Verizon finally has a bluetooth phone (which is what i REALLY wanted) coming out in the next month or so and having recently tested a verizon next to my t-mobile, I w...
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circuslove

Apr 1, 2004, 8:11 PM
you might want to check the verizon boards regarding that blue tooth phone coming out in a "month or so". They are notoriously months behind their promissed release dates and we are talking like 4 months and up late. I find blue tooth more of a novelty myself unless youre one of those Macintosh peeps.

Thing with T-mo vers someone like verizon could also be the T-mo being straight digital and the VZN phone having the ability to go analog when the digital signal is weak. Some new VZN phones are not analog/digital and in that case you may find yourself in the same predicament with your new phone and provider as you had left behind with T-mo.
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rtx

Apr 2, 2004, 11:14 PM
I too live in SoCal and drive the 5 and 405 all the time and no problem with my TMobile service. Since I'm in the 20 mile buffer ou speak of and have no problems I find it hard to validate what you posted.
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Aleq

Apr 1, 2004, 4:05 PM
Well, for that zip we show good to excellent coverage, however to be fair I've noticed that the NYC area does have a higher likelihood of tower issues--for example right now we're showing three towers having trouble in the area. To be fair, though, we tend to get them back on line pretty quickly and we're good about giving bonus minutes for tower and network issues. Best thing is to try it--you have fourteen days, so use them to try out service all over your area, I'd go for a good reception handset as well, go for Nokia or Samsung, activate through a direct dealer if possible to avoid any extra stipulations regarding returns of extensively used phones, and just keep in mind that it's a wireless phone, not a magical, foolproof communicatio...
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Mendel

Apr 1, 2004, 7:38 PM
Aleq said:
Well, for that zip we show good to excellent coverage, however to be fair I've noticed that the NYC area does have a higher likelihood of tower issues--for example right now we're showing three towers having trouble in the area. To be fair, though, we tend to get them back on line pretty quickly and we're good about giving bonus minutes for tower and network issues. Best thing is to try it--you have fourteen days, so use them to try out service all over your area, I'd go for a good reception handset as well, go for Nokia or Samsung, activate through a direct dealer if possible to avoid any extra stipulations regarding returns of extensively used phones, and just keep in mind that it's a wireless phone, not a
...
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nbock

Apr 14, 2004, 9:12 PM
Put simply... I've had T-Mobile for 16 months. I've had 5 dropped calls. All in basements. Must be why T-Mobile was rated #1 in my particular market by a third party with respect to dropped calls.

As for my former carrier, Cingular.... I couldn't get service in my apartment, which happens to be in a major city. SBC (part owner of Cingular) used to have it's global HQ in the area, if that tells you anything.
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MW2

Mar 30, 2004, 11:05 PM
i think he was joking. i don't think any of us would want just 1 major gsm carrier in the u.s. as that leaves no real competition on the gsm side (yeah they'd still be competing against cdma carriers but that's a different story).
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moobak

Apr 1, 2004, 9:49 PM
I agree with you MW2. The FCC has done worse to wireless providers to keep competition clean. 😛
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moobak

Apr 1, 2004, 12:02 AM
You're right, T-Mobile isn't looking to be bought right now. T-Mobile as well has the advantage of having NO TDMA service to migrate their customers from, so can focus soley on 3G services.
Unfortunately, they have not made /any/ public advisory of any 3G upgrade stratagy. Not to say they're not working on it now, in private, but it can only benifit them if they are looking into it, to advise the public.

And Pranu, I agree with you, but quite a few wireless insiders have looked at the current wireless market, and said outright that there is totally going to be some major consolidations, not just with AWS, but as well with other providers, namely ALLTEL, US Cellular, etc. Eventually it will be down to about three or four major national pr...
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moobak

Apr 1, 2004, 12:06 AM
BTW I totally know AWS isn't the best, only defend them because I'm biased. If I worked for T-mobile I'd probably agree with you ;)

And btw, if all customers are like you pranu, I think T-mo will go bankrupt real quick! LOL. 😛
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pranu

Apr 1, 2004, 2:08 AM
Hey - i look at it this way - i should be paid by T-mobile for my referrals!

In the last 1 month itself I have got 3 people to sign up/switch to T-mobile.

So despite my trying to save my money - I am getting other more normal customers to them - who they can fleece a little bit for all i care! 😛
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Starr06

Apr 1, 2004, 12:46 PM
You can get paid for your referrals. $25 credit to your account or 200 whenever mins credited (per referral).

Go to your local store or you can email me your names and mobile numbers and I can submit them for you for processing.
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pranu

Apr 1, 2004, 1:24 PM
April 1!!!!!
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