a tip when getting started -- choosing a phone number

[canadave]

For those who activate online, just wanted to pass along a quick simple tip for new signup people who like choosing a "nice phone number" and aren't sure if you can do that with Public Mobile.

When you go to activate your SIM card online, the setup wizard gives you a choice of five phone numbers to choose from. However, you can click the text below that which says "Load more numbers" to load another five numbers. If you keep clicking that link, you can load many, many numbers--way more than the original five. Just scroll down through the list of 100 numbers or whatever...you're bound to find one that you like. This gives you way more phone number options than when you activate in-store...they do a similar process, but they don't make it clear whether you can choose more numbers if you don't like the original five the store clerk offers you.

A further, related tip: if you do that method, you can zoom out your browser so that when you click the link to load more phone numbers, it doesn't scroll you down and force you to scroll back up to click the link again. Makes the process quicker that way 😉

[SD08]

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@RobertQc wrote:

Its unfortunate PM gives this to new activations and the process for changing your number as a current customer in self serve doesn't give you these options you need to manually use the drop down menu and change the field and put it back each time for a handful of results. Its quite a PITA and a real disappointment.

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@RobertQc

Agreed.  There is such a big difference in options for choosing a number during activation vs. changing a number after activation in the self-serve. As mentioned, during activation, the number selector will show many numbers, adding 5 each time to an accumulating list. It will even give you an option to do a custom search to see if your preferred last 4 digits are available within the exchange you've selected.  By contrast, if you try to change your number after activation, the selector will only show 5 numbers at a time, and when you refresh, it will replace those with a new batch of 5 numbers instead of adding to the first five.  If you see a half-decent number that you sort of like, you may or may not get it back later if you refresh many times. 

Because of this difference, I always advise new customers to spend some extra time picking a number they'll be happy with during activation if there's even a small possibility it might become their permanent number.  Of course, that is easier when activating from your own device, as opposed to doing it in a store, where you have less control over the whole process, unfortunately.  Ideally, PM should be offering the same wide variety of numbers both during and after activation.

[RobertQc]

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@slash407 wrote:

if u got a 416 number, its big. Because those numbers are really coveted and i heard people would even try to buy u out. If u got a good one. Im talking about well over hundreds of dollars

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@slash407I wouldn't say any 416 number is "big"... 416 numbers start at $9 from this guy call 416-554-4844 if you want to buy one. There are also many others selling them for a handful of dollars.

For $80 you can get a 416 number that the last 4 digits spell out words, like RIDE, FAIR, HOME, ROOF, etc.

The ones that bring in crazy amounts are things like 416-488-8888, 416-200-0000, 416-666-6666, etc and yes I agree well over hundreds for these.

416 currently has the following 3 first digits in use with 10,000 combinations of each

200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 388 389 390 391 392 393

Had to delete most because I got an error, since they all have links attached its a lot of text

"Message cannot exceed 20,000 characters."

[RobertQc]

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@canadave wrote:

For those who activate online, just wanted to pass along a quick simple tip for new signup people who like choosing a "nice phone number" and aren't sure if you can do that with Public Mobile.

When you go to activate your SIM card online, the setup wizard gives you a choice of five phone numbers to choose from. However, you can click the text below that which says "Load more numbers" to load another five numbers. If you keep clicking that link, you can load many, many numbers--way more than the original five. Just scroll down through the list of 100 numbers or whatever...you're bound to find one that you like. This gives you way more phone number options than when you activate in-store...they do a similar process, but they don't make it clear whether you can choose more numbers if you don't like the original five the store clerk offers you.

A further, related tip: if you do that method, you can zoom out your browser so that when you click the link to load more phone numbers, it doesn't scroll you down and force you to scroll back up to click the link again. Makes the process quicker that way 😉

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@canadaveJust don't click "show more numbers" too fast, otherwise it freezes and you have to start the activation process all over again. I know this first hand, multiple times from setting up peoples accounts trying to choose a number with them....

Its unfortunate PM gives this to new activations and the process for changing your number as a current customer in self serve doesn't give you these options you need to manually use the drop down menu and change the field and put it back each time for a handful of results. Its quite a HUGE pain in the butt and a real disappointment.