Question on porting an out-of-area number

Here's the situation... I am seriously considering switching over from Sprint to Cingular, since I need to able to send SMS messages to friends in Europe from the US. I also like the fact that I can roam globally and still receive and send SMS messages.

I currently have two lines with Sprint, but the numbers are both Cleveland numbers, which I'd like to keep.

When I stopped by my local corporate Cingular store in the Baltimore MD area, they said that I had to:
a) Go to a Cingular store back in Cleveland
b) have a billing address in Cleveland

Does that sound right? I understand that I'd have to be setup under a "Cleveland plan", instead of a "Baltimore / DC plan", but why not let me do the switch with my current Baltimore billing adddress? And do I really have to go to a store in Cleveland to do the port?

Anyone else have any experience in porting an out-of-area number with Cingular?

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Originally Posted by paid2surf

Here's the situation... I am seriously considering switching over from Sprint to Cingular, since I need to able to send SMS messages to friends in Europe from the US. I also like the fact that I can roam globally and still receive and send SMS messages.

I currently have two lines with Sprint, but the numbers are both Cleveland numbers, which I'd like to keep.

When I stopped by my local corporate Cingular store in the Baltimore MD area, they said that I had to:
a) Go to a Cingular store back in Cleveland
b) have a billing address in Cleveland

Does that sound right? I understand that I'd have to be setup under a "Cleveland plan", instead of a "Baltimore / DC plan", but why not let me do the switch with my current Baltimore billing adddress? And do I really have to go to a store in Cleveland to do the port?

Anyone else have any experience in porting an out-of-area number with Cingular?

I work for Cingular in the Balt/Wash Market. We cannot port numbers that are out of our market. You would have to go to a store in Cleveland if you want to port your numbers or have a Cleveland address and go through telesales or online sales. Cingular or no company for that matter will port a number from a different city if you don't currently live in that city.