Can I port my number from Consumer Cellular?

An update on the process to make things go smoothly. After transferring my TN yesterday and the 7 hour fiasco. I transferred my Wifes TN from Consumer cellular to AT&T prepaid this morning. I knew most of the steps and who to call this time. Took less than an hour. I asked questions along the way so I could document it.

When you order service online select the new number option instead of keep my number.

When it ask for the area code for your new number it needs to be the same area code as the number you are porting. Otherwise it will error out because the market code of the temporary TN and the one you are porting don't match. If it doesn't offer you the same area code select one it does offer. But when you get the new service the prepaid department at 800-901-9878 will have to change the temporary number to make it match the area code of the number you want ported before you can transfer your number.

When you receive the package with the SIM go to an AT&T corporate store and tell them you are porting a number from Consumer Cellular and per the Porting department you need another SIM card.

Call Consumer Cellular porting/activation department at 888-750-5519 and request a PIN to transfer your TN to AT&T. This PIN is only good for 24 hours. So don't request it until you are ready to get it transferred.

Follow the steps in the Prepaid activation kit to activate the temporary TN from the kit and pay for the plan. You will get an account PIN that you will need to give the porting department so they can access your new AT&T account.

Call AT&T's porting department at 888-898-7685. The IVR will ask for the number you're calling about. Enter the number you want ported. When you get a rep, tell them you just activated service with AT&T prepaid with a temporary number. You'd like to get your current number on AT&T at Consumer Cellular Migrated to your account. They will need that number, your temporary number, and AT&T account PIN. They will then ask for your Consumer Cellular account number, Billing name and address, and the PIN number you got from Consumer Cellular earlier. They will request the transfer from Consumer cellular and ask you to call back. If they aren't busy they may keep you on the line until it's approved.

If they ask you to call back. You can watch the status of the transfer at www.att.com/port. Once it shows the transfer approved. (Took about 20 minutes) Don't click the activation link on the website. Call the porting department back at 888-898-7685. When the IVR ask for the number you are calling about enter 0 this time or it won't connect you. Tell them the porting website shows the transfer was approved and you need to change your temporary number to the transferred number. They will ask for your temporary TN and account PIN and the number you are having transferred again. Tell them you already have a new unused SIM card to use with the transferred number. They will ask for the new SIM number and IMEI of your phone. You can get the IEMI by dialing *#06# on your phone. After giving them the information. Power off the phone. And replace the temporary SIM card with the new one you just gave them the number of. Do not turn the phone back on until they tell you to do so after completing the transfer.

They will cancel the temporary account and set up a new account with the new SIM and your transferred number. They will then transfer your payment on the temporary account to the new one. Once that is done they will have you power on the phone. Once powered up they will have you make a test call. Then they will send you a text to make sure everything works.

That's all that's involved. When done correctly it only took about an hour to complete. I had already gotten the extra SIM card so that saved me the time traveling to the AT&T store.

Consumer Cellular operates off of AT&T's (and T-Mobile's) network, but isn't related to AT&T other than that. CC is an independent company which pays AT&T for use of it's network, so porting a number from CC to AT&T isn't "internal."

I would never risk paying $300 for a number I didn't want with the hope of the actual number being ported over later. I'd say if you can't port the number when you place the order, either online or in the store, you should decide if the risk of losing your number is worth the savings that come with that prepaid 12 month plan. 

Thanks for the response.

Here are a couple of post I've found on other forums referring to ports from Consumer Cellular to AT&T as internal because Consumer Cellular runs on AT&T's network. They say it can be done. But it's a Migration not a port and must be done differently. So it can't be done through the automated system. An option I have found is to get a T-Mobile SIM for Consumer Cellular That will port it from AT&T's network to T-Mobiles. It then it can be easily ported to AT&T because it will no longer be registered on AT&T's network. That would cost $10 for the Consumer cellular T-Mobile SIM to do.

Take everything to a corporate store. Because Consumer Cellular runs on AT&T network this is seen as an internal migration. Migrations have to be done in a store.

and

A lot of times ports get "stuck" in a system called NPAC. That happens because AT&T and Consumer Cellular register as the same Carrier (consumer cellular is a reseller) It has to be manually pushed by TSS by consumer Cellular. Ask for a manual push by TSS if you call customer service.

It sounds like you should go to an AT&T store. 

I was able to get my Consumer Cellular number transferred to an AT&T Prepaid account today. But it was more difficult than just going to the AT&T corporate store to get it done. I went to the AT&T store as instructed when I ordered the service. They said they can't do anything with prepaid accounts and gave me the TN for the prepaid customer service (800-901-9878). Went home and called them. The tried to Migrate (must be manually migrated not ported) the number but CC reject it using the PIN 0000 that they told me to use before I started the process. Had to call CC porting department again (888-750-5519) to request a PIN to transfer the number to AT&T. Called ATT back with the PIN. They transferred me to the porting department (888-898-7685). They tried again with the new CC PIN and said the port was successful, but the account wasn't activated. They said the SIM and temporary TN that I was given was suspended by the first rep and they can't reactivate it. Said I needed to go to the AT&T store and request a new SIM card. I did and explained the issues I was having. They gave me a new SIM for free. Called the porting department back and when I entered my TN in the IVR it said my account had been successfully ported and wouldn't connect me to a person. I hung up and called back and just entered 0 when it asked for my TN and it connected me. The porting department said I needed to talk to the Prepaid customer service to get the new SIM card activated with my ported number. Called them back and they were able to activate the new SIM I got at the store with the number I ported. All is good now. I spent a total of around 6 hours between the time on the phone with the different AT&T departments, Consumer cellular to get PIN's, and my two trips to the AT&T corporate store.

@formerlyknownas Can you give any feedback on what might have gone wrong here so others don't have the same issue @geh4848 did? Why is Consumer Cellular so much more difficult than Cricket?

@geh4848

I've spent some time on Reddit,  it's a (Edited per community guidelines) for sure.  

1.  It's seen as an AT&T number already, so looking for "migration", which doesn't work. 

2.  It is seen as an AT&T number already but it's a cross market number, and seen as migration. 🤦🏼‍♀️

   The Creative Solutions:  switch their SIM card to a T-Mobile SIM card give it some time to register on T-Mobile's Network and then are able to port in their phone number because it doesn't appear as an AT&T number already.  A hassle with consumer Cellular. 

Some went to Cricket.  Cricket has a very similar price as AT&T prepaid, includes taxes instead of charging them on top like prepaid does. A few people went to Cricket thinking it was going to be a stop over and wound up staying.  Don't understand why port from cricket works, but CC doesn't 🤷🏼‍♀️

Make sure your phone is unlocked and compatible. It may not be! With 3G shut-off imminent, nothing is as it was in past years.

**Do not assume your unlocked phone will work on at&t. **

@formerlyknowas @MicCheck See my new accepted solution I just posted with the steps needed to easily transfer from CC to AT&T.

They say it can be done but it is not true.  I want to join an at&t family plan and get a new phone but keep my same phone number.  I received a transfer number and went to the at&t store and gave all of the needed information but the message they kept getting is that since At&t already owns the phone number it can't be transferred and that I would have to get a new phone number. I do not want to switch my number.  Please help.  Consumer Cellular is a horrible example of a legitimate phone company.