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Getting BYOD and Will Phone Number Transfer?

consultant

Well-Known Member
Aug 13, 2012
200
25
We know that BYOD is in effect for iPhones. Just like people bought the cheap phone in the past and swapped the SIM card. I have a newer Verizon Android Smartphone. My roommate has an iPhone not on Xfinity. Couldn't we take the SIM card out of the iPhone, pop into the Xfinity store and have them put a SIM in it. Don't transfer the phone number. Then take the Xfinity sim out, pop it in the Android Verizon phone, then transfer the phone number and WALAA, BYOD Android? Or would the phone number not transfer because although the device you're transferring the phone number too has a working Xfinity SIM, the IMEI of the phone is not registered with Xfinity?


I know that it's quite common to be able to swap SIMs, such as in the case if you travel to a foreign country and want to use local cell service with a local number instead of roaming.


Here's an even more interesting second part of the question. I understand the cell companies need to design their service offerings around the "lowest common dominator" customer so to speak or else risk flooding their customer support lines. One reason why firmware updates come out so much later on carrier versions of Android devices than on Google devices. They are extra cautious on the rollout because one major bug and they'll have millions of pissed off customers. (So would Google, but it takes additional time for the slow carrier to create their brand of the new O/S version.)

So consider this. The Xfinity service is $0 per line if you don't use it. SO, theoretically, if you put a SIM in your Android device and it didn't work, you wouldn't get charged anything. Someone like me knows I would be "on my own" so to speak so if it didn't work I would have no reason to call tech support because the person at the store warned me, we don't support Android devices. If this doesn't work you need to simply cancel the line.


It seems Xfinity is leaving a lot of money on the table for us Android Verizon users that want to switch. In fact, the salesperson could test the SIM in your Android device at the store before you even left! So why not say, Verizon Android Phone users can get a SIM card but there is no guarantee it will work. If it works, customer is happy, and more money for Xfinity. If it doesn't, customer puts old SIM card back in, customer is not charged for anything (unless there's a setup fee) and no harm no foul. This only works if you make the customer get the SIM from the store so salesperson can verify it works, which they already require for iPhone. If you allowed people to get shipped a SIM card, then I could see potential Customer Service headaches and understand why they would hold back from activating a BYOD program for Android which has a much wider variety of phones than iPhones. But I would BET that almost if not all * VERIZON * Android phones work perfectly with Xfinity SIM.


Am I missing something here or isn't this logic completely reasonable?
 

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