Carrying over only 1 number from Bell without cancelling entire account

[danvaleri10]

Hi,

I'm looking to change my service provider from Bell to Public Mobile. My existing phone line is on an account with 4 other phone lines with Bell, and I want to make sure that when I go through the SIM activation process to carry over my existing phone number, my entire bell account is not cancelled. Is there any way to guarantee that only the 1 specific phone line will be canceled and not the entire account? When going through the sim activation process on the Public Mobile website, in order to continue, it forces you to select the check box that says "I authorize the transfer of my phone number to Public Mobile and the cancellation of my account with my current service provider" but I want to make sure it will only cancel the 1 phone number being transferred and not all 5 phone lines.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[darlicious]

@danvaleri10 

Welcome to Public Mobile!

[Handy1]

@danvaleri10 Excellent good stuff  we happy hear you got it all figured out 🙂

[danvaleri10]

I got in touch with Bell and got one of their representatives to confirm that only one of the 4 mobile phone lines was being ported out, and the rest of the account was to remain as-is. I followed the rest of the steps of the SIM activation as normal without any other issues

[darlicious]

@danvaleri10 

All good now?

[darlicious]

@danvaleri10 

You can port in at activation I only recommend a temporary phone # just to avoid the possibility that if you have an issue with the pm Sim card provisioning correctly at activation you are not left in limbo without a working phone. The temporary number avoids this allowing you to make sure that everything goes well with the activation of the pm Sim card (if not  contacting pm customer support to sort it out for you) and then porting in once it is working correctly. And it doesn't hurt to save up to 10% in provincial sales tax....😁

[danvaleri10]

I've quickly plugged my phone number into the link you provided and it says it is eligible to be carried over. Thank you for providing that!

[Handy1]

@danvaleri10 @Most here are much more savvy and knowledgeable then I , I’m going be personal experience I have ported to and from many providers and manage several accounts and never encountered any issues doing so … that said welcome to public mobile 🙂

[darlicious]

@danvaleri10 

Then you shouldn't have any issues....since you have to enter the account holder's name then you probably know if that's the same number you are porting in or not.

[danvaleri10]

@darlicious thanks for the quick reply. As far as I'm aware the number being carried over is not the primary number on the existing Bell account

[esjliv]

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@danvaleri10 wrote:

@Handy1Thanks for the quick reply. Interesting that your reply and @esjliv 's responses seem to conflict. For reference, the phone number im trying to carry over is not considered the primary number of the existing Bell account. I've sent a message to the PM support agent account, hopefully they can clarify further.

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@danvaleri10 - sending a message to Public Mobile support will not help you with your Bell accounts, other than move the phone number over to Public Mobile once you accept the SMS port approval.

But since you said the number from Bell is NOT the primary/master number, then you should not have any worries about your other accounts with Bell.

Before you port over, perhaps check to see if your number can be ported from this Koodo website (Telus owns Koodo and Public Mobile), so, same allowances here:

https://secure.koodomobile.com/checktransfereligibilityparrot/default.do?lang=en&appname=otherportal

[Handy1]

you can but I advice against many have issues porting when using the imei method .. you can double check with bell about it .. thou I don’t think it will effect anything cos the account will still exist with bell for the remaining lines you have with them and need to continue to pay for that service aswell 

[danvaleri10]

@Handy1 Thanks for the quick reply. Interesting that your reply and @esjliv 's responses seem to conflict. For reference, the phone number im trying to carry over is not considered the primary number of the existing Bell account. I've sent a message to the PM support agent account, hopefully they can clarify further.

[darlicious]

@danvaleri10 

The only concern you should have when porting out a phone # from an account with multiple phone #'s is if the phone # being ported is the phone account holder's number. If so then you must arrange with bell and the owner of one of the other phone numbers on the account to take over as the account holder and become responsible for the entire account. Once that is done the former account holder can port out without fear of affecting the rest of the phone numbers on the account. Any other phone number can port out of an account with multiple phone numbers/lines on the account without any other action on their part other than replying YES to the PAT (porting authorization text) within 90 minutes of recieving it.

You will still need to use....

1. Account holder's full name.
2. Bell account #.
3. Your phone #.

Your port will complete within a few minutes to a maximum of 2 hours. Once the bell Sim stops working the port is complete and you can put the pm Sim card in the phone and reboot. Personally I recommend activating with a temporary phone number (Choose Alberta and pay only gst on the activation plan). Once all of you services are working on the pm Sim card you can then port in thru your self serve account's profile page.

Welcome to Public Mobile!

[danvaleri10]

Even after plugging in my account #, there is no option to select anything regarding leaving the existing account open. Nothing changes if I plug in the IMEI # instead

[Handy1]

Account don’t give imei 

[danvaleri10]

I have the SIM activation window open right now and its asking me for my previous service provider, and the either 1) my phone's IMEI OR 2) previous provider's account number. It doesn't look like there is an option to select anything regarding how to treat the existing account 

[softech]

@danvaleri10   it is possible, 

When you activate, you just need to provide them the phone number to port during the step about porting.  It might ask you a question what to do with the account, just pick the one saying leave it opened

[esjliv · Accepted solution]

@danvaleri10 - you better confirm that will Bell. In order words, if there is a master phone number with all these accounts, and you choose to port the master one, this may affect the other accounts.

Some info. for review:

• Cell ports can take 2-3 hours. Use the previous provider's SIM card to receive the porting transfer text for approval to port over to Public Mobile and to receive calls from until port is complete.
• Landline/voip ports can take 3+ days. Expect a mix of services on the landline and Public Mobile SIM card until port is complete.

When the incoming calls stop on the previous provider’s SIM card and/or landline/voip account, that is a good indication the port is complete.

See helpful info. here: https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/get-help/articles/port-fraud-protection

[Handy1]

@danvaleri10 @When you port a number over to pm it only cancels the number from the old provider . So your other lines on bell will still be active on bell just not the number you port to public 

remember to keep bell SIM card in phone until you get the confirmation text from bell to port @ That point you have 90 mins to reply YES to the confirmation text to port 

edit also when porting it will ask your for your old bell account and number you want to port … it will also ask for your imei do t worry about providing that info it’s not needed and only tends to cos the port process hiccups