ATTENTION P'TEL/GIV CUSTOMERS!Some of you
may know already, and some of you this news might not apply to you currently, but it still might apply to someone you know. I recommended P'tel to a lot of people over the years, and the current news is sad and a little unexpected, but the news needs to be spread as P'tel is swamped as it is. The more who know and can pass on the info to others, the better, and the info needs to be consolidated down into a single location.
On January 20th, P'tel announced to their dealers and began the process of informing their customers that after fifteen years of business,
P'tel and Giv Mobile will be shutting down on January 31 and that January 26th should be the safe guaranteed number port-out date. It's short notice, it's unexpected notice given there were no early warning signs, but it's notice all the same. I'm trying to help get people out as best as possible given I helped get them in, and for what it's worth my own family is in process of dealing with this first hand and porting out as well.
For anyone who has P'tel/Giv and are looking to switch to one of the other carriers from
the communications guide and are wanting to keep your number, it is important to port out
sooner than later as P'tel is running on a skeleton crew currently. This means obtaining SIM cards locally as opposed to getting them shipped. Fortunately, I can provide the most useful information to help most people port out now. Here's the pertinent details...
Treat January 26th as your safe number port out deadline, so the sooner you port, the better.Account information:Your current P'tel account number is your ten digit phone number (ex: 8185551212)
The PIN associated with your account will be 0000
You can obtain SIM cards for the following carriers from the guide at these locations:Consumer Cellular SIM cards are available at most
Sears locations.
H2O Wireless SIM cards are available at most
Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile locations.
Airvoice Wireless can activate
new, unactivated AT&T SIM cards in a pinch (though they prefer not to), which can be obtained from
any location that sells AT&T phone service.
Puretalk USA SIM cards are available at select
K-Mart and
Sears locations in addition to phones at both
Sears and
K-Mart.
Ting GSM SIM cards are starting to become available at select
Staples and Kroger locations (not listed online yet, call or visit stores directly).
SIM cards for major carriers not listed in the guide such as Tracfone, NET10, StraightTalk, Cricket, MetroPCS, etc., can be found at nearly any brick and mortar store that carries cellphones. Tracfone, NET10 and StraightTalk historically have a higher reported failure rate with number porting (both in and out) than most other carriers. This isn't to say it can't be done, but there may be a higher risk of number loss if your number is
really important to you. This is reported only for the sake of general awareness.
It's sad news, and not a good sign long term for the independent MVNO industry when one of the longest surviving brands shuts its doors. If you remain with the smaller independent carriers, be alert,
pay attention to MVNO industry news, and
keep an escape plan with SIM card handy. Unfortunately, without wholesale wireless regulation, the major carriers are now undercutting their own wholesale customers to increase profits and bring back lost postpaid customers with in-house prepaid services offered through older purchased network brands such as Cricket Wireless (owned by AT&T) and MetroPCS (owned by T-Mobile). This strategy is working. That means there might be more surprises in the future from other long time and seemingly stable independent MVNOs, and as the network operators gain back direct billing control over customers, price increases might not be far behind.
Be well, all of you. May the ports that need to be done go smoothly for one and all.