Can i switch my phone line in between 2 different phones?

[SundayDuffer]

Im new with Sprint. Therefore i was wondering.....

Say i have the Pre and the HTC Hero, can i just swap my phone line to either phone on my own? at anytime i wish? or i need to deal with Sprint to do this?

or i can cough out another 10bucks to tag the second phone onto the first one as family plan, but i will have a different phone number.....hmmmm!!!

thx.
SD

[VeeDubb65]

I've been a sprint customer for a number of years, and to the best of my knowledge, you have to call sprint to do that. They used to have a few phones with swappable sim cards, but not these days.

Without a swappable sim card, you're SOL

[jhoff80]

Actually, you can swap phones on the website for free after the initial activation of the second phone. It's not an instant swap, so I wouldn't want to switch every hour or anything, but it works great if you're swapping for the weekend or something.

[VeeDubb65]

Kind of comes out in the wash I think. Call them, do it on the website. About the same at the end of the day.

[deparson]

When the Web swap works it takes about 2 min. to do and then the phone is ready to go within another 1-5 min.

Sometimes the Web swap will kick you out to a chat session which can take 10-20 min. do to the crazy slow response from the agents. "Please wait for 5 min. Mr Smith while I type another word"

You could activate on the family plan and use Google Voice. That way you keep one number buy can use two phones as you see fit.

[mrsyeltzin]

Originally Posted by deparson

When the Web swap works it takes about 2 min. to do and then the phone is ready to go within another 1-5 min.

Sometimes the Web swap will kick you out to a chat session which can take 10-20 min. do to the crazy slow response from the agents. "Please wait for 5 min. Mr Smith while I type another word"

You could activate on the family plan and use Google Voice. That way you keep one number buy can use two phones as you see fit.

The Google Voice option is a nice idea, especially for newcomers who aren't porting numbers or worried about switching primary cell numbers.

It should be noted that while swapping phones is usually a quick and painless process, Sprint warns you that it can take up to 4 hours and I've done it so often that I have found a few occasions where data wasn't reliable for that time. I never missed a phone call, however.

[SundayDuffer]

Thanks guys. Very informative helpful ideas. Prolly will get a hold of the Hero when it comes out, and play with it.

[barkerja]

Thanks for the info everyone, as I will be picking up a Hero as well and switching back and forth between it and the Pre.

[ronnienyc]

Swapping is usually painless and the data usually works within a few minutes. BUT BlackBerrys take longer for the data to kick in. Sometimes an hour or more. Otherwise its painless - recommend doing it yourself on the website - it's fastest.
Also, Sprint does claim sometimes that there is a $15 fee to connect a phone *the first time only * so if you are swapping back and forth you may incur a single fee of $15. And I guess you can have such fee removed if you call and complain about it ;-)

[halcyoncmdr]

Never seen a $15 fee for connecting a phone before.

Upgrades have an $18 fee, new accounts have a $36 fee, adding additional lines to an already existing account are $26. Swapping phones that you already own doesn't incur a fee.

[girthfingers]

When you guys say that data is unavailable for the blackberry for a longer period of time, will I still receive text messages? I just bought a new tour to compliment my Pre, but most nights I only want to carry one phone.

[halcyoncmdr]

Blackberry data goes through Research In Motion's data systems versus Sprint's so data provisioning usually takes longer to go through fully. Text messaging and Voice calls still go through Sprint's network entirely.