Thank you all for responding! I.P. Daley, I think I'm just overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information in your guide and that's why I figured getting some personal input might be less confusing for me. I'm only looking for a single line of service for the foreseeable future, so it sounds like Ting wouldn't be my best option. Which of the other providers would you recommend? I probably go through 1800 minutes of calls each month, and probably over a 1500 texts as well. I don't use data for anything.
At those usage levels, I would definitely recommend an AT&T MVNO (if AT&T coverage is conducive to your area) offering an "unlimited" talk and text plan. Airvoice Wireless offers a $20 "unlimited" talk and text plan with 100MB of data, as does H2O Wireless' EasyGo sub-brand now. My own mother uses Airvoice.
The thing to remember when pouring through the information in the guide is that I've tried to structure it so you can apply the process of elimination to the diversity of choices, because there really is no one-size-fits-all provider or network.
Who offers the best coverage in your area, and/or which networks does your existing phone work with?
Which of the options on that/those networks offers the best deal for the usage pattern you use?
Asking these questions helps to rapidly plow through the field and narrow down to two or three at the outside most. In your case, your Republic handset is carrier locked to them only, which means you either need to dig out your old phone if you still have it or get another one.
Also, Jeremy, the thing about the number being turned into a landline is news to me and that sounds like a pain. Is switching to a different network the only way to get it to become a cell number again? And what's your timeline looking like for finally getting to Cricket, between the two transfers?
I've mentioned the porting issue problem in the past with Republic during other debates over why I don't recommend them and try to warn others here from even going in to begin with, and it does cause problems with number porting with some carriers, unfortunately. Even myself, the best solution I've found is to port to either T-Mobile prepaid or a T-Mobile MVNO first if you're needing to take the number to most AT&T or Verizon carriers, but there are exceptions and I'd encourage you to ask the provider you're going to first before trying to work sideways on the issue.
It's a pain in the keester, but that's Republic in a nutshell. When it fails, it fails spectacularly on multiple fronts that most people never even consider being an issue... and they aren't,
except with Republic. They're so unique and special, they've created their own set of wholly unique and special problems that
no other mobile carrier user has to deal with as you're now finding out.