What is the process to transfer a phone number to a new Public Mobile account?

[Word-Nerd]

The recent amendments to this post are not "spam".  This is not an advertisement for some scam or so-called "business".  Changes have been made to this post to include corrections and recommendations made by people here, as is stated in one the final paragraphs.  The purpose of this post is to collect in one place all the ideas and recommendations (about how to port over a phone number) which are all over the place in the Community but have not been organized into one clear or comprehensive list of steps to perform. 

This is a different question from the prior one because this is not specifically about transferring a phone number to an old phone or from an old, possibly unusable SIM card.  This post is just to ask for clear, step by step directions about how to set up a new Public Mobile account (and SIM card) and transfer a current phone number over to it. 

Before the process is initiated, I would like to know everything which needs to be organized and ready (to complete the process successfully) and have an organized and very clear set of step by step directions on the computer screen, to make sure nothing gets forgotten or messed up.  

Please accept my apologies if all this information is somewhere else here, but I have tried to find it and have been unable to do so.  Please accept my apologies for some flaw in the program here because sometimes when amendments are made to the post, the program fails to format the characters to the same size, despite numerous attempts to make it do so.  I will not waste any more time trying to make it work properly.

From what I have learned so far (from all the helpful Public Mobile customers and employees here) about how to port over a cellular phone number from another company to Public Mobile, it seems like a long process which can take anytime from a few minutes to as long as 24 hours.

Please read what it seems to me is the process, broken down into steps, and tell me it this is somewhat accurate and, if there are any errors, please correct them. Hopefully this can help other new customers as well as myself.

1) Determine if your phone is compatible with Public Mobile (or Telus, which is Public Mobile’s parent company and the network on which P. M. Operates). The easiest and fastest way to determine this is to borrow somebody else’s Public Mobile SIM card for a few minutes, insert it into your phone, see if it shows the company name on the screen and send and receive a text message and a phone call. You can also determine this by comparing the type of radio band the phone can use to the frequency band the company provides service on and if the phone was bought in Canada and is from a company that Public Mobile (or Telus) sells, it should work. If it is not compatible, it won’t work.

2) Determine if the phone is unlocked. The easiest and fastest way to do this is to call the current service provider and ask the person who answers the phone to look this information up. If the phone is locked to any company other than Public Mobile, you will have to get it unlocked before proceeding (with the phone number transfer process). The easiest way is to get the current service provider company to do it for you. If service is provided by a company other than Public Mobile and the phone is locked (to that company), you can’t port over your phone number or get service (from Public Mobile) until the phone is unlocked.

3) If the phone is compatible and is now unlocked, buy a SIM card (from Public Mobile) either from the closest Telus or Koodo kiosk or store or by ordering online and waiting for it to be delivered. My preference is to get it from a store or kisok because then I know I have it and won’t have to fix a problem if the delivery person doesn’t show up or delivers it to the wrong address (or anything else). While that likely doesn’t occur very often, it is a big hassle when it does.

4) You must keep your SIM card from your current service provider in your cellular phone and the phone must be on for the duration of the phone number porting process, until you receive confirmation that the number has been transferred. A request will be made to provide your phone’s IMEI number but as long as you provide your current service provider’s account number (and the name on that account and the other information such as perhaps the account’s PIN – Personal Identification Number), the port request should be initiated even without the IMEI number. The IMEI number is not necessary for the initiation of this process but is collected (if provided) for the purpose of checking if the phone has been “blacklisted” (due to loss or alleged theft, for example) or is only necessary if the customer cannot provide her/his account number.

5) If your current account is with PC Mobile or is a prepaid Koodo account, you must create a Public Mobile account first and activate (online) the Public Mobile SIM card, then contact Public Mobile customer service online to help you port your current phone number over. You must keep your SIM card from your current service provider in your cellular phone and the phone must be on for the duration of the phone number porting process, until you receive confirmation that the number has been transferred.

6) If the account is postpaid (with any company) or prepaid with any company other than Koodo or PC Mobile, you can request the phone number transfer and new Public Mobile account and SIM card activation yourself at the same time, although some people recommend activating the new account first with a temporary phone number before trying to port over your current phone number (to Public Mobile), as it is believed to be less complicated (and thus less likely to cause problems) if the new P. M. account is set up separately before the number port request is made. You must keep your SIM card from your current service provider in your cellular phone and the phone must be on for the duration of the phone number porting process, until you receive confirmation that the number has been transferred.

7) Do not inform the company in advance that you plan to close your account, contact the company to schedule a future closure of the account or close your account (with or without the help of a customer service agent) with your current service provider. Since the current SIM card will only work with your current service provider, you must keep that account active (until after the phone number has been transferred to the new Public Mobile account and SIM card). There is no need to contact your current company to request closure of the account as this is automatically done after the phone number is transferred to your new Public Mobile account.

8. If you want to activate the new Public Mobile SIM card (and account) first (to separate the account and SIM card activation process from the phone number transfer process to try and prevent problems from occurring), use Public Mobile’s self-serve option (online) to choose a temporary phone number first. Sorry about the inconsistently numbered list, but whenever the number 8 is followed by the right side bracket, the website replaces it with a smiley face!

9) You must keep your SIM card from your current service provider in your cellular phone and the phone must be on for the duration of the phone number porting process, until you receive confirmation that the number has been transferred. Do not close the account with your current service provider, as explained in Step # 7. You will have just 90 minutes from the time you receive the confirmation text (from your current company) to respond Yes to porting the number over (to Public Mobile) in order to complete the number porting request.

10) Based on various messages posted here the transfer process usually takes about 30 minutes, although for some fortunate people it takes just a few minutes and, if there is some kind of problem, it could take as long as 24 hours.

11) Once you have confirmed (by responding Yes by text message) that you want to transfer your phone number (to your Public Mobile account), wait for Public Mobile to appear on your phone screen, then test it by sending and receiving a text message and making a phone call.

12) If, for some reason it doesn’t work properly, contact Public Mobile customer service and set up a service ticket by following the directions at https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help .

Thank you to sheytoon who provided some more helpful information about the phone number transfer process (when setting up a new Public Mobile account). In response to “How do you port a phone number from an old SIM card and phone to new ones?” she recommended that you should not inform the company in advance that you plan to close your account, contact the company to schedule a future closure of the account or close your account (with or without the help of a customer service agent). Since the current SIM card will only work with your current service provider, you must keep that account active until after the phone number has been transferred to the new Public Mobile account (and SIM card). There is no need to contact your current company to request closure of the account as this is automatically done after the phone number is transferred to your new Public Mobile account.

Thank you to Will13am for informing me that Step 5 (in the process to set up a new Public Mobile account and transfer a phone number over) was incorrect, as the requirement to get help from customer support to port a phone number over only applies to PC Mobile and Koodo prepaid accounts.

Thank you to Will13am also because I would never have thought to look for an article about “Port fraud protection” to find a basic summary of the phone number transfer process.

The link here connects you to a helpful article about how to do this yourself : https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help/articles/port-fraud-protection.

The original post has been amended to include each of the aforementioned corrections and recommendations.

Please do not copy what has been posted here with your response. There is no need to duplicate what is already here and create more data clutter as the information and questions are in this message.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide. It is appreciated.

[Medea62]

Okay, I got the porting e-mail from my previous provider and responded YES. How do I know when the porting's done? Do I need to leave the old SIM in after the YES response? Or do I put in the new one right away? (I put in the new one, but texting doesn't work, nor can I yet receive incoming calls.)
I'll give it another half-hour and then open a ticket, I guess. 

[Fizza88]

Hi, I just wanted to know that how can I make request from public mob to my current mobile service so that they can transfer my number?

[Billslam]

If I don't receive any confirm message, what can I do next step?

[darlicious]

@Word-Nerd 

Not every thread needs a solution since really your OP is the solution once you are done. Better yet....would be to acknowledge each new post that provides further clarity and rather than continue to edit your OP and continue to anger the spam man......take all of the info you have collected in this thread and organize and double check that it contains no misinformation as it does now and post an entirely new thread with the info spread out over several posts in a row.

Just work on it offline then when you are ready you can quickly copy and paste the first post. Make 3 or 4 placeholder posts that you add your OP that is broken up into 3 or 4 total posts. Then make sure you use a thread title that is likely to be searched so that you have a better chance of customers finding it if they happen to search for the right key words. You will sort of see what I mean if you searched my thread.....? It doesn't take much more than **poof** to bring it up to the top of the list.

You can unmarked a solution by using the edit arrow.....

[Word-Nerd]

   It was accidental, when I unintentionally pressed that "button" but when I read the information in the link he provided, it was, coincidentally, a fairly good summary of some of the steps necessary to complete the processes.

   When I read what other people here have posted and collected it together, there is obviously a lot more to the whole process than the Help Article provided and many good recommendations about how to make the process go smoothly, so I have included all those steps and recommendations now too.

[Word-Nerd]

     This post has been corrected and amended numerous times now, as explained in the fifth last and sixth last paragraphs.  Why I wrote it is explained in the first three paragraphs.  The twelve points are the twelve steps of the process of setting up a new Public Mobile account (and SIM card) and porting over a current phone number from another service provider, not questions.

   The purpose was to collect all the information from some of the other more coherent posts (on this topic) in one place and organize them into one comprehensive, step by step description of everything a new customer needs to do to set up a new Public Mobile account, activate a Public Mobile SIM card and port over their current phone number (rather than trying to decipher what twenty-seven people suggested in twenty-one other posts, all over the Community message board here).

   Every recommendation about how to provide better or more information about any step in the process will be considered and added as necessary. 

   Finally, new customers can find all the information about this topic in one place (I hope).

[darlicious]

Oh here it is....? Well I won't get that last hour back so I will just ask why would you accept a solution when you have asked 12 detailed questions that take time to answer and the solution chosen answers only one?

Edit:

😡

[Handy1]

@Word-Nerd  

My account

Legend  and features

Change plan / update cc /auto pay

Account #/ change # port

just sign in and go to profile once account set up and change port number 

[will13am · Accepted solution]

@Word-Nerd , you mentioned in your long dissertation that for prepaid you should set up and account and seek support to do the number transfer (step 5).  This is true for Koodo prepaid and PC Mobile only.  For other prepaid services you can submit the number transfer yourself.  See this help article.

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help/articles/port-fraud-protection

[Handy1]

@Word-Nerd  You have it all right there in your post @Word-Nerd   Definitely dont give IMEI as it causes hiccups more often then not just use old Carrier account number instead it’s all that’s needed , and for what ever reason if you miss the 90 min window to reply YES to confirmation text .. then you reach out to support and there’s a porting team you can talk to live agent if you miss this window or don’t receive the text as well I’ll send you that. Number so you have it .private message .. but otherwise you seem to have the info there already 

edit and yes both accounts need be active and once ports complete it automatically closes out your old carrier account 

edit 2 when you activate sim online the email and password you choose to use will be the credentials you will use to go to self serve the activations process is what essentially creates your pm account