Changing Your Cell Carrier After Moving
7:06 pm July 1st, 2007 by Sal Cangeloso
I moved two years ago and since then have been using my old cell phone number. This is not a problem for the most part, since it’s with Verizon I am always stuck with a crappy phone, or one that was cool 2 years ago. I’ve been wanting to go GSM for a long time, but since I have a cell phone number from a different region it has been impossible for me to move to AT&T or T-Mobile without getting a new number.
About a year ago I researched this extensively and found that there was no practical way to make the move. The people at Verizon, Cingular, and T-Mo were courteous, but completely clueless as to the issue. The one’s that did understand the workings of the regional networks basically told me to give up. It is one of the move annoying situations in the US cell phone market which, overall, makes very little sense and is designed to be as hard on consumers as possible.
Apple Insider has an amazing post on how one of their authors got around the problem.
From the article:
The problem arises — at least in my case — when your current mailing or usage address (specifically the zip code you enter into iTunes as part of your current address) no longer matches the region associated with your existing mobile phone number’s area code. Customers experiencing this problem likely have moved out of the region where they first activated their non-AT&T account and phone number.
This is my problem exactly. It’s about porting an out-of-area number to a different carrier. Carrier’s don’t like to do it and offer all sorts of excuses about how their system does not support it etc.
The problem now is that it looks like I need an iPhone to be able to port my number to a GSM network! I’m not opposed to buying an iPhone, but it would not be my first choice… I might try this out, but I am wondering if there is not another solution.
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I was having this same problem after having moved, but there is a way around it…sort of, if you have family or friends who can help you, and you can order online. We left our billing address for our current wireless carrier as our old address (we have mail forwarding and automatic withdrawal anyhow) and same with our credit card billing address. We had the package shipped to my mother-in-law who used to live near us, fixing the shipping zip code problem. (She promised to put the package back in the mail right away!) So, all the zip codes in the order were in the same region. However, the real key is that the website must think you are still in the old region too. You know how they ask you your zip code in order to give you the local special deals or whatever? THIS MUST BE IN THE SAME REGION AS THE AREA CODE YOU WISH TO PORT. This was the last piece of the puzzle for me. So, if you have a friend in your old city who doesn’t mind if you use their address, and they can send the package on to you, then it CAN be done.