CDMA Number to VoLTE Phone

[seedpress]

I’m trying to figure out how to port my old, CDMA Page Plus cell phone number to a new VoLTE phone that I just purchased from Page Plus. I don’t want to lose my accumulated minutes, which are in a Pay-As-You-Go account. My old phone is probably a decade old—no sim.

I’ve read of people losing their old numbers and unused time trying to do this. I looked through the Page Plus FAQs, which were of no help. I’ve also googled and found no clear answer, but did encounter lots of horror stories about Page Plus service calls and chat. A lot of people must now be doing the same thing I’m trying to do—what with all the threats by PPC to shut down CDMA and 3G. You’d think PPC would have a step-by-step tutorial.

[Boz1]

It's possible that not a large number of people are still using phones with no SIM card, so perhaps that's why there's no direct guide for that.

All you need to do is start a PPC chat, tell the CSR you want to move service from your old phone to a new phone. The agent will get you current account info, ask for the IMEI from the new phone, and possibly also the ICCID from the new SIM card, although it's possible they already know the SIM card ICCID they sent with the new phone.

After the CSR gets all the required info, they will move the service to your new phone, including all balances and service time. If the CSR doesn't suggest it, keep the CSR on the chat until you've placed a test call with your new phone.

[dfriz]

I went from a flip phone to a Samsung J3 on Page Plus, worked out, no problems. Kept balance & number ok.
On Pay Go, 6c/min, 6c/meg data, $10 every 120 days.

[jmac32here]

It may be possible, but if my experience of migrating from Sprint to T-Mobile on Tello is anything to go by:

It could mean not being able to use VoLTE/MMS for some time and may require the Tech Teams to get involved in getting your account in order to get those features back.

Though my experience was migrating the same device from Sprint CDMA to T-Mobile LTE/VoLTE and led to 3G only calling and MMS stopped working.
(Could have LTE coverage but can't make phone calls)

My device is an older iPhone SE and should work with both, but it took 2 days for the phone to even be able to use B12 or B4 - was stuck on B2.
(B12/71 works inside my apartment better than that other bands.)

The Tello Tech's are still trying to research and fix the fact that I do not have VoLTE or MMS, 4 days later.
(I don't even have the option to turn on VoLTE.)

[rpz1]

Just do as Boz said. Use chat. Easy peasie. Done it many times.
Any issues people have usually concern changing carriers and networks.
You'll be fine switching your old phone to the new one within PP.

[whacker]

Yeah, it's not a port. It's a device change. Nothing to it. I did a couple of phones 2 1/2 yrs. ago.

[seedpress]

Thanks for the help. We actually had two phones--one for me and one for my wife. In one case, the chat window folks were able to (port) change our old phone with no hitch. In the other case, no chat window was available, but the toll free number help worked fine. Both phone numbers and balances were moved over without a hitch. A few years ago it took three days and hours of time on the phone to do this for my disabled neighbor. I guess the PagePlus/Trafone folks have finally fixed some previous problems with their service!

[Rockchuck]

A few years ago it took three days and hours of time on the phone to do this for my disabled neighbor. I guess the PagePlus/Trafone folks have finally fixed some previous problems with their service!

While it was true that when the company was first sold to Tracfone, transactions weren't always reliable. These days, Page Plus usually get changes done in one contact, be it by chat or by phone. One tip that others have suggested is to have the C.S. rep confirm your cash balance before making any significant change. Have both phones powered off. The rep will direct you to switch on the replacement phone after the change has been put through at their end.

ESN/MEID changes are instantaneous, but in the CDMA era, I did have number ports take overnight for the routing changes to propagate through the system. (I could call out, but incoming calls went nowhere until the next morning.)

[Rockchuck]

... if my experience of migrating from Sprint to T-Mobile on Tello is anything to go by ...

Moving from carrier to carrier represents a much greater leap than making an ESN/MEID change on the same MVNO, with the same underlying carrier (VZW). Changing from CDMA to LTE does appear to take more steps for the C.S. rep than a simple change, but from the user's point of view, there's nothing to it. I don't remember being on the line more than ten minutes (versus about five minutes for earlier CDMA to CDMA ESN/MEID changes).

It's entirely possible that some service components (messaging, data) may lag when advancing from one technology to the other. I've had to suggest that users "sleep on it" and re-check fuctionality the next day.