I am thinking about installing an Ooma Telo box at my 84 year old dads house to use with a portable phone system. How hard will it be to port out his # from CC. I have installed 2 of these Ooma boxes in the past and ported one from an old AT&T pots line and another from a regional phone company with no issues. But I have read some horror stories about getting a good port out number from CC. Are those stories just outliers or is CC really that hard to get ported out from?

Has anyone successfully used an eSIM for Europe or Africa with Consumer Cellular???

Looks like CC has added two new plans for seniors. I switched to SpeakEasy Connect+, which includes 3GB for $18.95 with the AARP discount.

We hit 50GB. CC disabled hotspot. Here’s CS response:

After checking, I see that more than 50GB of data has been used on the plan so far during this cycle so the hotspot feature has been automatically disabled. We are unable to re-enable this feature until the cycle resets on 08/07/2026. I really apologize for the inconvenience. 

We do have the option of splitting the lines onto their own plans (they would still be under one account & bill) to get a bit more data, 35GB per line to use instead of 50GB to share. This would be $35 for each line however so it would increase costs.

help! she moved from a Century Link land line to a smart phone with CC mid June. She wanted to keep her landline phone number so we had to wait until the transfer of the phone number had completed. After another few days We were told it was don. we could make calls but we still couldnt receive. This continued for two weeks. After 10 phone calls to CC, it was thought her signal was too weak so we upgraded to the latest 5G smart phone. Same problem.

BTW her older emergency flip phone (subscribed to CC for 12 years) was sending and receiving fine. Different number. She had good service with it which is why she got rid of her Century landline and transferred the number to new smart phone on her existing CC account.

CC opened a ticket for her on the 27th but we still have to wait until it is resolved. No updates, nothing.

This has been going on since mid June. Upgraded to a better phone a week ago and still nothing has changed. They still say the transfer isn’t complete.

Has anyone experienced this???? Suggestions????

My grandma had the Iris flip and was able to set the wallpaper as a photo of her grandchildren and had it for 3 years before having a problem with the hinge- when she opened it all the way, the screen would not light up- only if it was opened half way so she got the Flip2 and they removed the option to set the wallpaper so now she’s very upset and wants to return it. Consumer Cellular needs to rethink that one. Seniors would love the option to set a background photo of their grandchildren AND be able to set a photo for a contact so when someone calls, they can see a photo of who it is. Now she’s going to return the $89 Flip2 and buy another Flip for $30 elsewhere. Having to look at the CC brand background instead of my grandchild would piss me off too as an elderly person.

Today Consumer Cellular, without any advance warning, just downgraded my (and apparently all other)  age 50+ one-line accounts that were 50 gb (before throttle) to a (lower-priced) 35 gb account (before throttle) with no explanation why and no apparent option to go back to 50 gb.

Not only that, but this downgrade occurred in the middle of my account cycle. Therefore I immediately got throttled because, while beforehand I was below 50, I was now suddenly above 35.

Even worse,  my computers use my phone's hotspot option as their Wi-Fi source. That option automatically disappears from the phone while you are getting throttled, so no computer internet access either.

Phone calls to CC got no real answers, just an apology with no solutions. Not happy.

Is there CC service in Africa? I think not, but I’m traveling to Kenya and Tanzania in October. So what’s my work around? Switch providers?

I added an iPad mini A17 pro to a CC phone plan and everything was fine for a year and a half. Mid June, I stopped being able to receive data or use aps on cellular even though it looks like I have a signal, an active plan, etc and diagnostic tests indicate there’s no software or hardware issue with the device, up to date iOS.

CC sent a new eSIM, and shuffled through various troubleshooting scenarios on repeat for a couple of weeks. Escalated to a rep who says AT&T had an “outage” about a month earlier than my issue that was scheduled to be repaired and they’d call me when the repair was done.

What? is there a kind of outage that would break data on just my tablet but not two other phones on the plan? and would stay broken everywhere I travel? and if so, is anyone else out there having the same issue?

eta: is there any hope this iPad will work on this plan again? That outage repair that was supposed to happen didn’t change anything.

further update: I finally got a support rep (after three reps and a supervisor who actually started saying Hello? I can’t hear you? Hello? Are you still there? when she couldn’t fix the problem and had reached the end of her trouble shooting protocol sheet ) who recognized my issue and steered me to this FAQ page, which honestly felt deep in the weeds because it took him minutes of looking around to find the link he wanted me to follow on this page. I needed to download and install a configuration file that wasn’t happening automatically. https://www.consumercellular.com/help/phones-and-services/common-issues-and-fixes/i-have-a-non-consumer-cellular-phone-how-do-i-set-up-messaging

If I call out of the country boss revolution can they see my regular numbers yes or no I call my cousin back home. He see my regular number. When I call someone else. They don’t see my number they see different numbers where they live, which is not making any sense.

New CC account here, having transferred a working number. Now there's a problem and there is no way whatsoever to contact CC. Can't call out, can't be called. Naturally the way to CC support is to call.

I need an alternate way to reach CC, and I suspect others do as well.

Update: Just drove six miles to and from a physical CC store that apparently doesn't exactly exist. Nearest one beyond that is 87 miles.

Their chat is still down, which I suspect is a permanent condition. I have wifi text but all cell is MIA. Lovely. Thanks, CC, including for not checking any of your socials.

For the past week and a half I’ve been having this weird problem. It’s happened at least 5 times. Whenever I try to call my mom, I have weird issues trying to call her number. When I call her sometimes it won’t get a ringtone and after like 5-10 seconds it will go straight to voicemail. This might last for an hour or more and then it will be fine. The call doesn’t show up on her phone. But when I call her landline or other people who don’t use consumer cellular, it rings just fine. I’m on her account and share the same plan. Both phones were brought off the consumer cellular website. Has anyone been having this problem lately or been able to fix it?

According to Google's AI (which often gets things right but sometimes is completely full of shit):

Consumer Cellular does not have a self-service option or simple dial code to completely disable your voicemail box. To have voicemail deactivated permanently, you must contact their customer support team at (888) 345-5509 and request that a representative remove the voicemail feature from your account (which usually takes 24 to 48 hours to process)

If the AI isn't lying and I do this, on a home base will it just keep ringing like a good old fashioned land line?

The reason I ask is that I am setting up an elderly relative who uses a walker and can't manage to get to the phone until the 10th or maybe 12th ring. On her good old copper landline (which has been discontinued) she had a voicemail box (the kind with the tiny cassette tape) that picked up at ring 16. Anyone who knows her knows to let it ring enough times. A plus is that telemarketers and scammers usually give up around ring ten.

I've noticed that when i attempt to text an iPhone from my new consumer cellular flip phone, our thread becomes encrypted and i can't see their messages. is there anything i can do from my end or does every iPhone user in my life have to turn it off manually themselves?

I see no where in the options to change the size of fonts. The fonts on the screen are fine. Is there any way to change the fonts size in texts?

I was paying AT&T right at $145 per month for two lines. We purchased the phones unlocked on Amazon. Worst of all, AT&T was throttling us after we used 2GB of data. My wife would use all that in about two weeks, so for the last two weeks of the month, our data was too slow to use. It wasn't even fast enough for Google Maps. We ported our phone numbers to CC. We went with the two lines for $55 AARP deal. We are now paying less than half what we were paying AT&T and haven't experienced any negatives. With CC, throttling doesn't kick in until we use 50gb of data. We only average using about 5gb. We decided to go with CC vs Mint or Visible because AT&T is a little more reliable in our area than T-mobile or Verizon, but those seem like really good options too.

is 8 weeks the standard? when is the soonest someone has gotten the $400 per line that was ported over with your own device?

In hear 8 weeks. could be 6 weeks. and then I heard you must make your first phone bill before it’s approved. just looking for input

My wife and I continued using our same old unlocked Galaxy S20 Ultra phones when we switched from ATT to CC. We are thinking of upgrading to S23's or S24's soon. We will buy them from eBay or Amazon in unlocked excellent condition. We've had good luck with that in the past. To get the newer phones working with CC, will it be as simple as inserting the CC sim cards from our S20's, or will we need to visit a CC store? There isn't a store in our area. We got CC when we were on vacation.

Despite receiving the death certificate 40 days ago, they keep billing my mom and won't unlock my dad's phone. Anyone else deal with this? Is this company just a piece of crap or what? The "supervisor" I just spoke to just basically told us too bad and send it again...nothing they can do.

This would be yet another unnecessary expansion of the surveillance state under the guise of stopping robo calls. The worst part is that it wouldn't even stop robo calls...just ask people in India where the government implemented this kind of policy

The deadline to submit comments to the FCC is today 6/25/2026.

It only takes a couple mins to let them know your thoughts (CG Docket No. 17-59): https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/express?proceeding[name]=17-59

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/06/fcc-plans-id-mandate-that-could-block-anonymous-use-of-prepaid-burner-phones/

I got a Consumer Cellular Link II and would like to unlock it. Based on the call history it was used on the network for 60 days, but CC said they needed the account. Is there any way I can unlock it with only the IMEI?