Stupid phone provider questions

[Joe LINY]

Hi all,

My once mighty Visorphone finally bit the dust, so I bought a t600, with Cingular service, through PalmOne. I would have preferred to stay with T Mobile, but it seemed to be unavailable in the 600.

The phone arrived today (surprisingly, since I only ordered it online 2 days ago; I expected a 1-3 week wait); and I had intended to just port my existing phone # from T Mo; but it looks like I'm getting the run around...My assistant spoke with PalmOne after I placed the order, since there's no provision to keep your # through the Palm site. We were told to contact Cingular before activating the phone, it should be no problem- Lo and behold, 5 hours of phone time later,between Cingular, PalmOne, and local dealers, my choices are:

-Use the # Cingular already activated, unbeknownst to us (No, I have''nt even turned the phone on yet)

-Shell out another 50 bucks at Best Buy or other Cingular dealer so they can issue me a new sim card, to use my existing #

-Wait 10 days or so for Cingular to send me a Sim, of course not free of charge...

Anyway, now that I'm perusing this site, and TreoCentral, I see a fair number of people are using T600s with TMo- at least in Metro NY. What gives? I'm a noob with cell phone tech, but is it possible to just use my sim from the Visorphone? Or is this an older version sim (18 vs. 19 pin; or 3 vs 5 volt?) that won't work in the T600? Is there any options I'm overlooking for maintaining my existing phone #?

I just feel that I've coughed up enough $ already, I should'nt have to pay more to keep my existing number...

Any help would be appreciated,

Joe

[NJBlackBerry]

First of all, you shouldn't have to pay anything to port a wireless number from one carrier to another. My wife ported her Sprint number to T-Mobile on a Treo 600 and it was very fast. Cingular should port it for nothing - they'll get your revenue!

Second question: assuming the Cingular Treo 600 is unlocked (and I think Cingular is selling them unlocked) you should be able to move your old T-Mobile SIM card over. Should is the operative work :)

[Joe LINY]

Thanks for the reply, NJ!

After more wasted time I got it squared away today- trucked down the road 20 miles to the nearest company-owned Cingular store, waited at least an hour while the guy made numerous calls...Once he called PAC, a subcontractor for Cingular; involved in mainly porting, I guess, things started to happen. After all was said and done, no charge for the new sim, and I'm back on my original phone #.

All I can say is if you are buying a phone direct from PalmOne, and you want to keep an existing #, GOOD LUCK!!! You're probably better off sitting on hold and ordering with a human than ordering online as I did....

Joe