Trying to transfer my number from a verizon phone with SIM to a new AT&T iphone 14 with eSIM - getting an error

You purchased a phone from AT&T to use with a phone number on Verizon?  You expected that this phone would work on Verizon, or did you intend to port your number from Verizon to AT&T?  Did you do anything to accomplish this porting?

I Purchased an iPhone through AT&T with wanting to transfer my current phone number on my current iphone which is with Verizon to the new iphone from AT&T.  In essence the intention was to port my verizon number on my old phone over to the new AT&T phone.   

I went through the Cellular setup on the AT&T phone to transfer the number and SIM via the following:   

Settings --> Setup Cellular -->Install Cellular Plan 

I get the error "Your SIM is not supported" message that I mentioned in my original post. 

So I tap on the "Other options" at the bottom. 

I tap on "Transfer from nearby iPhone" 

On my old Verizon phone - I tap "Unlock to continue"

I enter the verification code and on the verizon phone - it justs spins with the message - "Continue on your other iPhone"   

And on the AT&T phone it displays the message:  "Your SIM is not supported"   

Nothing further happens beyond that.   Any ideas how to get further?   Do I have to call Verizon to unlock the SIM / number before I can go through this process to transfer the number?   

When you purchased the phone from AT&T, did you not talk to them about porting your number from Verizon?  Did they give you a SIM or a new account/phone number?

Hey there @tigurr2024,

Thank you for reaching out to us. We are here to help you in any way possible. However, we will need more information in order to get you the assistance you need.

The Community Forums are a public support option where other users, and AT&T, will try and assist with high level support needs. This means we won’t be able to look into account specific concerns. To get the help you need for your unique issue, please review our Contact us : https://www.att.com/support/contact-us/, and choose the best option to reach out to us. You can call, chat, or reach out via social media, and we can review your specific issue and provide you support. If you feel your issue isn’t account specific, and can be answered generally, please let us know, and we’ll be happy to help.

Thank you for visiting the AT&T Community Forums.

David, AT&T Community Specialist.

So the old Verizon phone has a physical SIM and the new AT&T phone has an eSIM and no, AT&T did not give me a new account number.  When I tried to go to AT&T customer portal to activate my AT&T phone, it asks for your wireless number, which for me was my old Verizon number I am trying to port over and billing zip code and it didn't find anything.  So AT&T doesn't have the number I am trying to port on file with them yet for some reason.    I am just trying to decipher the error message as to who I should contact to unlock the device.  Verizon or AT&T.   I am thinking I need to call Verizon to unlock the SIM/number/phone and then the porting via the AT&T phone may work.    Thoughts?   

You need to call the port activation department, preferably from a different phone because your original Verizon phone will cease to work 

To reach out to the Port Activation Center (PAC), the number is 888-898-7685.

You can also check your port in status online. 

You need to port your Verizon number to AT&T. Link below from Verizon on the process. Once you have the info from Verizon, the you contact AT&T with the appropriate info to begin the transfer process.

https://www.verizon.com/support/port-out-faqs/

Thanks for the additional info.  I will pursue the above.  Thanks again.