tMobile Pay As You Go: Need physical presence of phone to recharge?

The $100-1000 minutes-365 days looks like the ticket for me to replace my
Cingular Family Plan - which is running me about $700/year actual cost for 3
phones.

$100 each for two phones that'll never ever use 1000 minutes in a year.

$500+ left to feed my own phone - which never goes over 300 minutes/month.


But the "refill" protocol isn't clear to me.

I'm west of Philadelphia, PA. One of those phones will be in the hands of my
#2 daughter, who lives in Ocean City, N.J.

Would I have to have physical possession of her phone to get a refill locally?
--
PeteCresswell

---

› See More: tMobile Pay As You Go: Need physical presence of phone to recharge?

Per (Pete Cresswell):
> isn't clear to me.

Followup questions:

- How realistic is it to expect to be able to port one of my Cingular numbers to
a tMobile pre-paid phone?

- If porting is realistic, is there increased danger of "losing" that number
just by forgetting to renew annually?
--
PeteCresswell

Per (Pete Cresswell):
> isn't clear to me

Oops! One more followup question.

I note that tMobile segregates their phones, offering only a subset for prepaid.

Would that imply that prepaid phones are some special, nonstandard design?

My agenda would be to get myself their most el-cheapo phone, then get an
unlocked Treo somewhere....move the SIM card to the Treo and keep the el-cheapo
for use at the shore when I'm out on the water.
--
PeteCresswell

In article <[email protected]>,
(Pete Cresswell) <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>But the "refill" protocol isn't clear to me.
>
>I'm west of Philadelphia, PA. One of those phones will be in the hands of my
>#2 daughter, who lives in Ocean City, N.J.
>
>Would I have to have physical possession of her phone to get a refill locally?

No. All you need is the phone number. You dial into a toll-free number and
enter a PIN# from a recharge card, or charge to a credit card.

In article <[email protected]>,
(Pete Cresswell) <[email protected]> wrote:
>Per (Pete Cresswell):
>> isn't clear to me.
>
>Followup questions:
>
>- How realistic is it to expect to be able to port one of my Cingular numbers to
>a tMobile pre-paid phone?

Not possible, period.

In article <[email protected]>,
(Pete Cresswell) <[email protected]> wrote:
>Per (Pete Cresswell):
>> isn't clear to me
>
>Oops! One more followup question.
>
>I note that tMobile segregates their phones, offering only a subset for prepaid.
>
>Would that imply that prepaid phones are some special, nonstandard design?
>
>My agenda would be to get myself their most el-cheapo phone, then get an
>unlocked Treo somewhere....move the SIM card to the Treo and keep the el-cheapo
>for use at the shore when I'm out on the water.

There is nothing special about the TMO prepaid phones except that they are
chosen for marketing in packages.

Any unlocked GSM phone that uses the 1900 MHz band is compatible.

I must have used the same T-Mobile SIM on a half-dozen phones since
originally signing up ... NONE of which was purchased from T-Mobile ...
and many of which were never even offered by them in the first place.

"Mike S." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> In article <[email protected]>,
> (Pete Cresswell) <[email protected]> wrote:
> >Per (Pete Cresswell):
> >> isn't clear to me.
> >
> >Followup questions:
> >
> >- How realistic is it to expect to be able to port one of my Cingular
numbers to
> >a tMobile pre-paid phone?
>
> Not possible, period.

Why is this? I have ported Cingular prepaid to T-Mobile T-Mobile To Go. Why
not postpaid to prepaid?