Nextel abandonment - going to Straight Talk

My son and I have been on the same plan with Nextel for ten years. They offer the best coverage in our area (upstate NY - very rural). While we never could use either of our phones at our own homes, what we were most interested in was a phone when on the road. We have hard lines at home. Last fall we decided to upgrade our phones because my son's got heavier use and was showing signs of failing. We went to the Sprint dealer at the mall and got talked into switching from our Nextel plan to a Sprint plan and upgraded to two new phones ($35 a piece). Got back to our area and tried to use our new phones in the usual places and had NO service where Nextel phones gave us service. Long story short, Sprint refunded our money when we turned in our new phones but would not let us go back to our old plan. So our new plans cost us $10 a month more. Now my son's phone has died and Sprint said the only thing they could do was have my son bring in his cell phone and they would check the plans and see if he could buy the same phone and stay with Nextel but in 2013 when the changeover will be complete and Nextel officially disappears, they are also abandoning some towers and we may not be able to have the same service anyway. So I decided to go with Straight Talk because a neighbor said it had the service area as Nextel.

My question: I want to give my old Nextel phone because it is still working with no problems to my son so he can continue his Nextel plan until the service is gone and he will be forced to go with Straight Talk. But I also want to transfer my number to the new Straight Talk plan. My son would like to keep his number. Can I call Sprint and tell them the truth and hope that they will remove me from his account, give him my old phone now using his phone number? I know that I can easily transfer my account to Straight Talk because we don't have any contract with Sprint because of the phones being so old. Any advice on how to handle this or if I'm in for some problems with Sprint would be greatly appreciated.

Or, when he changes out the SIM card will that change the phone number?
daytown

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› See More: Nextel abandonment - going to Straight Talk

Hopefully someone that works with Straight Talk can answer your questions.

What model of phone are you referring to? The old iDEN Motorola phones?

You can purchase a Straight Talk phone by clicking on the following link: Straight Talk - Hildretech

I recommend purchasing the Samsung Galaxy Proclaim, which uses Verizon Wireless' network, or the ZTE Merit, which uses AT&T's network. You can choose whichever phone gets the best coverage in your area.

When activating the phone, specify that you want to port your number. This will cancel the line of service with the other carrier automatically.

If you're switching from one Sprint/Nextel phone to another, you can call Sprint and they can take care of that for you.

Please let me know if you have any questions. You can reply to this thread, send me a Private Message, or send me an email at [email protected] for assistance.