Switching to another provider and keeping my Nextel phone number...

Mark wrote:
> How does this work? The new provider said I cannot cancel with Nextel or I'll
> lose my phone number.

Absolutely correct. Here's what happens:

**You sign up for the other line with the new carrier.

**Their Porting department contacts Netxel's Porting department. When informing
them of the name/address to give to Nextel to look you up, you must give them
your billing information EXACTLY as it appears on your Nextel bill or Nextel
will not be able to find your account and the port will fail.

Also, make sure your Nextel account is not password protected.

The porting process is started and Nextel automatically closes out your account
when it is successfully completed.

Your phone, which must be number-portability capable will have a number unique
to the new carrier stored in its memory. That's how the new carrier will find
your phone when someone calls or when you call out; it's called the Mobile
Station ID (MSID). But the directory number - or the Mobile Telephone Number
(MTN), as the industry calls it - will be the number you ported over from
Nextel, and when people call the old Nextel number it will ring your new phone.

(If you're buying a new phone or one made anytime within the past 18 months or
so, it will be able to handle number portability. You may want to check, just
to be sure, if you're using an older phone.)

> They need to contact Nextel and make the switch. The
> problem is that Nextel has an extra month of my money (2 months upfront
> required) and I'll be switching on a billing cycle date - so they'll still
> have one month of my money.
>
> Has anyone done this recently and how did it work?

I ported Verizon -> Sprint last summer. Sprint entered data into their system
and it was immediately transferred to Verizon, who indicated that the porting
process would be complete in four hours. A couple minor issues prevented this
from happening: (a) the fact that I had a password on the account, preventing
VZW from making any changes without my express authorization, and (b) the fact
that Sprint was mailing bills for to my current Apple Valley, CA address but
for some reason still had my old Victorville, CA address in their system. They
sent the Victorville number to Verizon, and the port failed because Verizon had
my Apple Valley address.

So I removed the password from my VZW account and called Sprint back, and found
out that they had the wrong address, told them to send the Apple Valley address
instead, and everything was fine. This was rather late in the afternoon and I
was told the port would be completed the next morning (which it was) and that
my old VZW number would be ringing my Sprint PCS phone within six hours of the
completion of porting process (which it was).

My wife had a Sprint phone, so we already had an account. And I bought my phone
about a month before porting, due to problems with Verizon. I waited to port
the number until my contract ended so I wouldn't be charged Verizon's $175
early termination fee. But even if you open a new account and initiate the
porting process the same day you should be fine. Of course, if you don't mind
potentially paying for another month of service, you may want to take advantage
of the new carrier's trial period before porting.

If you cancel your old account before porting, you lose your ability to port
and will permanently lose your old phone number. (a) You can't port a number
from a closed account, and (b) normally when you cancel a wireless phone, the
phone number goes back into the pool of available numbers, and even if you
restart service with the old carrier - which normally would obligate you to a
new contract - the likelihood of you being able to get the old number back is
extremely low. If you want to take your phone number with you, DO NOT CANCEL
YOUR OLD ACCOUNT.

The other thing is: Most of the carriers use the same third-party clearinghouse
to handle number portability. This means when you transfer between most
carriers, the transfer and subsequent use of your new phone with your current
number should be seamless. AT&T Wireless was the only carrier using a different
clearinghouse. I don't know if that's changed now that they are part of
Cingular, or when it will change if it hasn't already.

Hope this helps.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED)
Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.

---

› See More: Switching to another provider and keeping my Nextel phone number...

"Steve Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Mark wrote:
>> How does this work? The new provider said I cannot cancel with Nextel or
>> I'll
>> lose my phone number.
>
> Absolutely correct. Here's what happens:
>
> **You sign up for the other line with the new carrier.
>
> **Their Porting department contacts Netxel's Porting department. When
> informing them of the name/address to give to Nextel to look you up, you
> must give them your billing information EXACTLY as it appears on your
> Nextel bill or Nextel will not be able to find your account and the port
> will fail.
>
> Also, make sure your Nextel account is not password protected.

When number porting became available NEXTEL decided to number guard all
of their customers phone numbers so you WILL have to call customer care and
have the number guard removed or get the crazy password and give it to your
new service provider. Nextel will claim they did this for your protection.
I
had a hell of a time getting my wife's number ported from Nextel to Cingular
because of this number guard.

> The porting process is started and Nextel automatically closes out your
> account when it is successfully completed.
>
> Your phone, which must be number-portability capable will have a number
> unique to the new carrier stored in its memory. That's how the new carrier
> will find your phone when someone calls or when you call out; it's called
> the Mobile Station ID (MSID). But the directory number - or the Mobile
> Telephone Number (MTN), as the industry calls it - will be the number you
> ported over from Nextel, and when people call the old Nextel number it
> will ring your new phone.
>
> (If you're buying a new phone or one made anytime within the past 18
> months or so, it will be able to handle number portability. You may want
> to check, just to be sure, if you're using an older phone.)
>
>> They need to contact Nextel and make the switch. The
>> problem is that Nextel has an extra month of my money (2 months upfront
>> required) and I'll be switching on a billing cycle date - so they'll
>> still
>> have one month of my money.
>>
>> Has anyone done this recently and how did it work?
>
> I ported Verizon -> Sprint last summer. Sprint entered data into their
> system and it was immediately transferred to Verizon, who indicated that
> the porting process would be complete in four hours. A couple minor issues
> prevented this from happening: (a) the fact that I had a password on the
> account, preventing VZW from making any changes without my express
> authorization, and (b) the fact that Sprint was mailing bills for to my
> current Apple Valley, CA address but for some reason still had my old
> Victorville, CA address in their system. They sent the Victorville number
> to Verizon, and the port failed because Verizon had my Apple Valley
> address.
>
> So I removed the password from my VZW account and called Sprint back, and
> found out that they had the wrong address, told them to send the Apple
> Valley address instead, and everything was fine. This was rather late in
> the afternoon and I was told the port would be completed the next morning
> (which it was) and that my old VZW number would be ringing my Sprint PCS
> phone within six hours of the completion of porting process (which it
> was).
>
> My wife had a Sprint phone, so we already had an account. And I bought my
> phone about a month before porting, due to problems with Verizon. I waited
> to port the number until my contract ended so I wouldn't be charged
> Verizon's $175 early termination fee. But even if you open a new account
> and initiate the porting process the same day you should be fine. Of
> course, if you don't mind potentially paying for another month of service,
> you may want to take advantage of the new carrier's trial period before
> porting.
>
> If you cancel your old account before porting, you lose your ability to
> port and will permanently lose your old phone number. (a) You can't port a
> number from a closed account, and (b) normally when you cancel a wireless
> phone, the phone number goes back into the pool of available numbers, and
> even if you restart service with the old carrier - which normally would
> obligate you to a new contract - the likelihood of you being able to get
> the old number back is extremely low. If you want to take your phone
> number with you, DO NOT CANCEL YOUR OLD ACCOUNT.
>
> The other thing is: Most of the carriers use the same third-party
> clearinghouse to handle number portability. This means when you transfer
> between most carriers, the transfer and subsequent use of your new phone
> with your current number should be seamless. AT&T Wireless was the only
> carrier using a different clearinghouse. I don't know if that's changed
> now that they are part of Cingular, or when it will change if it hasn't
> already.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> --
> JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/
> Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) /
> [email protected]
> PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED)
> Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.

Mark wrote:

> My main question still remains. Nextel has an extra month of my money (as
> they do for everyone) and I'm never going to use it again.
>
> Is it safe to assume they'll be cutting me a check and sending it out?

They might pro-rate it depending on when your billing cycle starts (call them
and they'll tell you when it starts). You'll get some back. Depending on how
far you are into your billing cycle you might get most or possibly even all of
it back.

--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / [email protected] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"In case anyone was wondering, that big glowing globe above the Victor
Valley is the sun." -Victorville _Daily Press_ on the unusually large
amount of rain the Southland has gotten this winter (January 12th, 2005)