States and Cities Where Portability is Available What is Portability? Customer Service 1-800 Numbers for most carriers!
Portability Locations: As of this date, number portability is currently available in the top 100 MSA's (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) in the U.S. See below for a list of these MSA's by state. Keep in mind that many MSA's stretch the boundaries of even state lines, so if you do not see your city on this list, but see a nearby city, number portability may still be available to you.
Alabama Birmingham Mobile Arkansas Little Rock/North Little Rock Arizona Phoenix/Mesa Tucson California Bakersfield Fresno Los Angeles/Long Beach Oakland Orange County Riverside/San Bernardino Sacremento San Diego San Francisco San Jose Stockton/Lodi Ventura Colorado Denver Connecticut Hartford New Haven/Meriden DC Washington (parts MD, VA, WV) Delaware Wilmington/Newark (parts MD) Florida Fort Lauderdale Jacksonville Miami Orlando Sarasota/Bradenton Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater West Palm Beach/Boca Raton Georgia Atlanta Hawaii Honolulu Illinois Chicago Indiana Gary Indianapolis Kansas Wichita	Kentucky Louisville (parts IN) Louisiana Baton Rouge New Orleans Massachusetts Boston (parts NH) Springfield Maryland Baltimore Michigan Ann Arbor Detroit Grand Rapids/Muskegon/Holland Minnesota Minneapolis/St. Paul (parts WI) Missouri Kansas City (parts KS) St. Louis (parts IL) North Carolina Charlotte/Gastonia/Rock Hill (parts SC) Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill Nebraska Omaha (parts IA) New Jersey Bergen/Passaic Jersey City Middlesex/Somerset/Hunterdon Monmouth/Ocean Newark New Mexico Albuquerque Nevada Las Vegas (parts AZ) New York Albany/Schenectady/Troy Buffalo/Niagra Falls Nassau/Suffolk New York Rochester Syracuse Ohio Akron Cincinnati (parts KY, IN) Cleveland/Lorain/Elyria Columbus Dayton/Springfield Toledo Youngstown/Warren	Oklahoma Oklahoma City Tulsa Oregon Portland/Vancouver (parts WA) Pennsylvania Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton Harrisburg/Lebanon/Carlisle Philadelphia Pittsburgh Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton Puerto Rico San Juan/Bayamon Rhode Island Providence/Fall River/Warwick (parts MA) South Carolina Charleston/North Charleston Columbia Greenville/Spartanburg/Anderson Tennessee Knoxville Memphis (parts AR, MS) Nashville Texas Austin/San Marcos Dallas El Paso Fort Worth/Arlington Houston McAllen/Edinburg/Mission San Antonio Utah Salt Lake City/Ogden Virginia Norfolk/Virginia Beach/Newport News Richmond/Petersburg Washington Seattle/Bellevue/Everett Tacoma Wisconsin Milwaukee/Waukesha

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What is Portability in Cell Phone Numbers?

Number portability allows wireless customers to keep their current phone numbers when they switch from one wireless carrier to another within the same local service area.
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What is the start date for Number Portability?
November 24, 2003. This will cover the top 100 metropolitan areas in the U.S. Number portability will be available everywhere in May, 2004. Keep in mind that, when porting wireline numbers, there are more restrictions on which numbers can be ported.
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Is number portability available between wirelines and wireless phones?
Yes, but the porting process may take longer than the wireless-to-wireless porting process.
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What happens if I have a contract with my current wireless carrier?
You are still required to honor your contract. The alternative is to pay the early termination fee associated with your contract.
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Will porting my number cost me anything?
This will vary by carrier. Some will charge their customers monthly fees in order to recover their costs of providing wireless number portability. The FCC has mandated that this charge to end in 5 years. Check the plan details of any plan on the site to see what the porting charge will be.
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Can I use my current phone with my new carrier?
Most likely not. Different carriers operate using different technologies, so most often, your phone won't work on another carrier's network. You will most likely have to buy a new phone when you port your number to a new carrier.
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What do I have to tell my current wireless carrier to get them to port my number to my new carrier?
Nothing. This should be taken care of your new carrier. When you sign up with the new carrier and request that you keep your current number, they will first check to see if your number is portable. If it is, they will request your number from your carrier and take care of the details.
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What makes my number 'portable' or 'not portable'?
The number must be a local number, and must be within the new carrier's local service area. Additionally, your current wireless account cannot be "cancelled" or "suspended."
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What is the process for carriers who have my new account to activate that account with my current phone number?

1. The new carrier you wish to sign up will send a port request to your old carrier (via a clearinghouse).
2. The old carrier will verify (or potentially ask for more information).
3. Assuming all goes well, the new carrier will notify the Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC).
4. NPAC notifies all involved parties so that all records can be updated, then sends the new carrier a confirmation.
5. The new carrier goes back to NPAC with a confirmation.
6. NPAC instructs the old carrier to cancel service.
7. The process is complete, and your number should work with your new carrier.

How long will the process take to have my number working with my new carrier?
For wireless-wireless moves, the process should take approximately 2 ½ hours (a timeframe set by the FCC). This assumes that nothing goes wrong during the process. If there are any hitches along the way, the process could take longer. Also worth noting is that during this 2 ½ hour window, you will be without wireless service, as your old account will be cancelled and your new account will not yet be active. For wireline to wireless moves, the process could take a couple of days.

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1. Look for service providers with coverage in your area-Where will you use your phone and which wireless carrier has the best service there?
2. Choose the wireless phone you want and/or need-Do you need all the latest options or do you just need to make calls in an emergency?
3. Make sure you know how you will use your wireless phone-How many minutes will you use each month and at what time of the day will you use the most minutes? Will you call locally or long distance?
4. Be aware of how much buying and using wireless will cost-How much are you willing to spend on the monthly service and on the phone?
5. Look for special promotions-Are there any great deals out there that will get you the best deal for the right phone and plan?
6. Don't forget your accessories-Will you need to use a headset for your car, do you need a belt clip or extra batteries?

In the Beginning: An Introduction to Wireless
Think of the walkie-talkie as the electronic equivalent of taking your first step. For many of us, it was our first introduction into the world of wireless technology. Bewildering and exciting, but more importantly, proof that even at an early age, humankind possessed some sort of inherent need to find new ways to communicate. The walkie-talkie was wildly successful.
Fast-forward a few years and we've grown into a more dependable adult version of walkie-talkie called the cordless phone-a true introduction to what has permeated our lifestyles at home, work, and play. But limitations of physical distance prevented us from taking the cordless on the road until miraculously, the cellular, or wireless, phone appeared and now it's a vicious game of catch-up to understand what wireless means to the average Joe.

The Basics

Today's cellular service operates on much the same principle as our earlier walkie-talkie devices. Your voice is still transmitted through the air from point A to point B, but that's where most of the similarities end.
With cellular technology, messages sound clearer, travel farther, and are received by the second party (with a little luck) as if we were next door. And it's all done through a network built by breaking a geographic region into small areas called cells, which include the cellular antennas. Calls are transmitted from the antenna to the wired telephone system until it reaches the target audience on the other end. The term cellular is often used to refer to "traditional cellular" or analog technology (AMPS or Advanced Mobile Phone Service), which utilized a network built at 800 MHz by two service providers, or carriers, in each market. This simply means that 800 MHz is the wavelength or frequency at which your voice travels from your phone to the antenna. It also assures you that whether calling from the beach or from a traffic jam, potentially life-altering commands like "half pepperoni" will be heard at the other end.

The Digital Age
Just when you think that you've got a pretty good handle on what analog is all about, digital technology joins the party. This essentially means a second wireless technology; new terminology, products, and services; yet another learning curve; as well as up to five or six new competitors in each market. But the principle between analog and digital remains basically the same. The two most significant differences are that calls now travel at a frequency of either 800 MHz or 1900MHz and, unlike analog, the digital network breaks down the sender's voice into binary code, transmits it as data, and reassembles it on the other end. These digital networks usually are referred to as Personal Communications Service (PCS) networks, although the traditional cellular carriers also offer digital service, and sometimes call their digital service PCS, also. The relevance of these changes to the every-day consumer is that this break-through affects everything from call quality to network access, and features like caller ID, Internet access, and extended battery life.

Getting Started
Getting fitted for a wireless service provider, plan, and a compatible phone is as easy as doing some painless homework before you buy. We've made the following descriptions as clear as possible for you to understand before you make an educated buying decision, get hooked up, charge your battery, and get ready for the air waves. Choose a Service Plan That Best Meets Your Day-to-Day Needs

• Usage  When will you use your phone? This can be a real money-saving decision. Most wireless networks operate at or near capacity during peak business hours, and carriers typically charge users for every second they tie up a circuit. If you use your cellular phone heavily at night and on weekends, many carriers cater to that need by offering off-peak specials of 300, 500, or even 1000 minutes of evening and weekend calling for a nominal fee with the purchase of a standard service plan. These packages can be real money savers if used as intended, but beware: different providers define peak, off-peak, and weekend hours differently.
• Traveling/Roaming  Do you travel a lot? If you travel outside of your local/home area or service provider network, you can incur roaming charges, which means a surcharge will be applied for calls made and received while out of your home area and your local rate plan costs no longer apply. The good news is that most carriers have plans that cover beyond your local calling area. From regional plans (i.e., Northeast, West Coast, etc.) to national plans, the monthly fees generally are based on the size of the coverage area, and, though more expensive each month than local plans, these plans can be worth it if you expect to otherwise incur expensive roaming fees.
• Traveling Abroad  U.S. digital phones are mostly incompatible with worldwide networks except for parts of Mexico and Canada, where some of the same technology standards are used. If your phone has analog capability (i.e., it is an analog-only or dual/tri-mode phone), it could work in some Caribbean countries, although it may not receive calls. Europe and parts of Asia use mainly a standardized digital network called GSM. Phones built with GSM technology can access the network, regardless of the caller's country of origin, although each wireless carrier has their own charges for roaming into other countries and the phone has to be programmed to work at the frequency of that country.

1. Can you use your phone in your house?
2. Can you use your phone in your office?
3. Can you use your phone in school?
4. Does your call ever get disconnected or "drop" when you are traveling-if so where?
5. Can you use your phone reliably any time of the day or do you get busy signals at certain times, like heavy commuter times (7 A.M. to 9 A.M. or 4:30 P.M. to 7 P.M.)?
6. Does your phone work where you travel-for example if you take trips to the mountains, the beach, the mall, and so on?

• Size
• Weight
• Color
• Networks available
• Features

• Wireless Internet Access  The ability to look at certain Web sites.
• Short Message Service (SMS) and E-Mail  The ability to send and receive short messages and text e-mails.
• Speaker Phone  Some phones allow you to use them as a speaker phone.
• Two-way Radio Service  Nextel offers a "push to talk" service that lets your phone work like a walkie-talkie for quick, cheap conversations between two or more people.
• Downloading Different Ring Tones  You can customize the way your phone rings, from a popular song to a classical hit.

• Size considerations including the height and the weight of the phone
• Expected battery life for talk time and standby time
• Lines of text and characters per line on the screen (how big the screen is and how big the numbers are on the screen)
• Internet capabilities
• Messaging capabilities

• How many peak minutes of calling do you need (typically between 7:00 A.M. and 7:00 P.M.)?
• What are your needs for off-peak minutes of calling (7:01 P.M. to 6:59 A.M. and sometimes all day Saturday and Sunday)?
• What percent of your calls will be local calls?
• What percent of your calls will be long distance?
• How often do you think you will use your phone when you are outside of your local calling area (roaming)?

Sample Schedule Illustrating Potential Phone Use

• Will I use the phone while driving?  If Yes, get a car kit or a headset (many phones already come with some sort of hands-free head set, so be sure not to buy an extra if it is included).
• Will I use the phone a lot while driving?  If Yes, then get a car charger or a car kit.
• Do I need to use my phone for long times while away from my charger?  If Yes, then buy an extra battery and make sure it is a long-life battery.
• Will I need to charge my phone in more than one place?  If Yes, then buy a charger for your office or home.
• Will I need to carry my phone with me all the time?  If Yes, then buy a leather case for protection with a clip or a belt clip that hooks onto the battery.
• Do I want to personalize my phone with different colors?  If Yes, then buy a faceplate for your phone-there are many colors available for some of today's popular phones.