Best way to change a family's cell phones and provider at the same time?

September 9, 2024 4:14 PM

We currently have 3 Android phones on Google Fi and want to have 3 iPhones on Xfinity wireless. What's the best way to go about this while limiting any interruptions? Also, one of us lives in a different state.

As stated, we want to migrate from Android to iOS and also change providers from Google Fi to Xfinity. When I contacted Xfinity they said if we purchase phones from them they can't ship one of them to our daughter who is away at college in another state. I want to do this as simply as possible, hopefully not leaving anyone without a phone or service for any period of time.

I'm thinking this would be the best order of operations, but am looking for any confirmation or a better alternatives.

1 - Switch our current Android phones from Google Fi to Xfinity and port all of our numbers
2 - Purchase new iPhones directly from Apple, having them shipped directly to their new owners
3 - Have each person activate their new iPhones on Xfinity, and copy over any data they wish from their Android phones

Is that it? What am I missing?

posted by drgonzo2k2 to Technology (7 answers total)

is this a time sensitive problem? if not emergent I would wait until daughter visits you next. if it was me, would so very much rather try to get it all done at once retain everyone’s service, port info over and max out trade in values**. Even if it meant someone dealt with a cracked screen until Thanksgiving etc.

Someone at Xfinity may tell you it’s possible to do everything concurrently from diff locations, but I am an Xfinity customer and they lie all the time about their service continuity :( I wouldn’t personally count on a multi-location changeover guaranteeing your daughter uninterrupted service.

**if you choose to buy Xfinity-locked phones, it may score you an additional deal to trade in your androids and purchase right at Xfinity in person. But you could certainly stick with your plan to purchase unlocked phones in advance from Apple.

One other parameter re: above: it may seriously be worth considering the price of a ticket home for your daughter in the mix - if you could save $$ by trading in / buying everything in one fell swoop at Xfinity in person, and it would save a huge amt of headache to coordinate all at once, and one or more people can’t wait til [next scheduled family visit at home], the price of her ticket to you may be worth the additional ease and speed of the changeover.

Edited to add upon preview: my comment above is assuming that everyone has to end a joint Google fi contract at exactly the same time as part of a family plan and will all have to be added to Xfinity family plan at exactly the same time. If that’s not the case, then your solution should work fine
posted by seemoorglass at 4:32 PM on September 9

Response by poster: Thanks for trying to help!

It's time sensitive in that we're moving, and where we're going Verizon (which is who Xfinity uses) has much better coverage than Google Fi (who uses T-Mobile).

At the same time, we all have older phones, and so the trade-in amount doesn't really play into it for us.

I assumed, maybe incorrectly, that by me going through the Xfinity website to switch every one over and port their numbers, it wouldn't matter if my daughter was sitting in the next room or in her dorm room.
posted by drgonzo2k2 at 4:39 PM on September 9

Are you all tied into a joint family plan that needs to be ended (on Google fi side) and started (on Xfinity side) by a certain fixed date/time? Or is it “pay as you go” on both ends for all 3 of you individually?

If it’s pay as you go, I would double pay for both Googlefi and Xfinity for the month of [september] and just proceed as you wrote it out above. The double coverage will mean any hitches in Xfinity adoption aren’t going to kill service altogether for one or all of you and I like your idea of everyone switches over at the time they each have availability.

If it’s not pay as you go, and it is a joint family contract, and there are hard and fast contractual rules about when you can enter/exit the service and when your phone # will be available for porting re: either or both service plan terms, it’s less that geography matters that much and more that things can get hinky if there’s a hard service cutoff date for all 3 of you for Google fi, and it could end up affecting 1-3 of your coverage, presumably at a time that she may be in class etc.

In a perfect world everything would be fine as you wrote it out ; but if you’re tied into fixed contracts on either end, and something goes wrong in the three-person porting process* then it can be complicated to try to trouble shoot for 3 diff lines with 1-2 service providers when only 66% of you can be coordinating with the rep / restarting your phones simultaneously / available on standby in real time

*I have ported my service and number a few diff times but only between pay as you go / contactless carriers. Most times it’s fine but sometimes for reasons I don’t understand, there is a downtime of service ESPECIALLY when it’s the “self service” menu version. I learned things go smoother if I double pay for months of serving across old and new carriers for backup. Alternately if I was a contract customer I would for sure go in to the store in person to get someone who knows what they’re doing and is a human and has some accountability to just sort it all out.
posted by seemoorglass at 5:26 PM on September 9

Response by poster: Thanks for your answer! We do have a family plan on Google Fi, but we are not locked into any sort of contract there. We can cancel or leave at anytime. We'd also be entering a family plan contract on the Xfinity side.
posted by drgonzo2k2 at 5:30 PM on September 9

Ok, in that case I think you’ll be fine as you wrote it out. My simplest TLDR of all the above is double-pay for one month of service overlap in case 1-3 of you run into service changeover delays. Good luck!
posted by seemoorglass at 5:39 PM on September 9

I’d suggest the following order of operations:
1. Buy iPhones
2. Set up iPhones on your existing carrier
3. Change carrier

I agree with the suggestion to coordinate a time for the carrier transition. It went wrong for us, it was a stressful week.
posted by shock muppet at 9:58 PM on September 9

I would change carriers first, with existing phones. You can then buy the new phones one at a time if necessary, with the place you purchase them doing the number cutover in the store. Almost anywhere you have Xfinity service, there will be an Xfinity store nearby - and you can buy phones from them if you like, or if you find them cheaper elsewhere do it there.
posted by TimHare at 10:21 PM on September 10