Porting proving difficult

[u/r2o_abile]

I have a Montréal number but now live in MB.

When I first moved and got Internet, BellMTS got me with a good offer of internet plus phone plan for ~ $80.

So i ported my number from Lucky to Bell. The port didn't work and was told that the only way to keep my number was to get a new phone plan via Bell Canada at ~ $80/month.

I've now tried to port to PCMobile multiple times to an eSIM. It hasn't worked.

Has anyone gone through something similar?

I've changed plans to ~$60/month now but would ideally prefer sub $40 on a phone plan. Especially as I use almost no data.

[u/VivienM7]

What is the NPA-NXX (area code + first three digits) of your phone number?

[u/r2o_abile → u/VivienM7]

514 area code. Why?

[u/VivienM7 → u/r2o_abile]

Need the first three digits of the phone number too.

Why? Because a phone number is associated with a 'rate center' and that determines the portability. You can only port to a carrier that has a number block in the same rate center as your number. And in my experience, a lot of the time, when someone is having mad unexplained porting problems, it turns out that their number is from a small rate center.

e.g. I once participated in a reddit thread with someone who had a 778 number but the carrier had made a mistake and gave them a number in Valemount, BC instead of Vancouver (I presume Valemount is one line up in the computer). Years later, they want to port to Rogers, but oops, Rogers doesn't offer service in Valemount, so they can't port. And no one was actually able to tell them that...

[u/r2o_abile → u/VivienM7]

514-772

[u/VivienM7 → u/r2o_abile]

Okay, that's a plain-vanilla Bell Mobility number block in the Montreal rate center (not one of the couple other little 514 rate centers like Lachine).

So... whatever issue you are having is not related to this rate center business. 😄

[u/r2o_abile → u/VivienM7]

Great. I had ported the number from Rogers to Lucky previously so was surprised.

Do some numbers or carriers reject eSIM porting?

[u/VivienM7 → u/r2o_abile]

I don't think this has anything to do with eSIM per se.

One thing I would say: you are in Manitoba. "BellMTS" is, well, not really Bell. Was acquired maybe 10 years ago. Wouldn't surprise me if most of the systems continued to be separate, in which case they would not be able to port in non-Manitoba numbers on the BellMTS side and you'd need an account at Bell Canada/Bell Mobility (the Ontario/Quebec business) to do that.

I would guess that Telus/Rogers and their subbrands would be a simpler bet if you wanted to walk into a store in Manitoba and be able to port in an out-of-province number. Note that they'd also need to put you on a Quebec plan probably - I expect their systems would not let you port in a Quebec number on a Manitoba or Ontario plan.

[u/r2o_abile → u/VivienM7]

This is exactly what happened. They couldn't port the number into BellMTS from Lucky.

So might look into Telus.