[sdbob]

What happened to me. Kept getting a letter from Verizon 'my device is not 5 g compatible ' Received this for couple months last year. Finally called in December. Like you trying to contact a big co. Finally got to talk to a man. He asked me what I had,I said my home phone, he said you need to do nothing. Ok. I use this smart phone alot .home phone rarely,since wife past. I wasnt getting any calls. So I called my home phone,'number not in service', huh. Called V a Indian sounding woman said nothing could be done. I had to buy 'their' phone for about $90.00 . So I called again to complain ,got a mgr,female she tried to help but my old number is gone I had for 44yrs. Everyone, businesses know that number. Anyway she said if I had let them know,when talking to that man(he messed up wrong info) I could have received 'free' 5g compatible equipment.GRR. I'm glad the creator gives good information.

[poncho-mike]

A very similar thing happened to me. My wife's cell phone service is through a company named Republic Wireless. It was started by some alumni of the local college, NC State. We've had their service for probably 7 or 8 years now, my son signed up when he started college at NC State. They work on local wi-fi, and only use cellular when out of range of wi-fi.

My wife doesn't use much data or cell phone usage, the phone stays at the house most of the time connected to the local wi-fi. Everything seemed to be going fine, I even took it to work a couple of times and it connected to my employer's wi-fi system with no issue. But one day my wife went into Raleigh and said the Google Maps wouldn't give her directions.

I started checking and found we had no cell service. I called Republic wireless, and they told me my service was terminated since I had not responded to their emails. I had lost service about four months ago. They said I needed to transition to a new plan because of their change to 5G, and my phone had to be compatible with the new service.

They checked my phone, and it was not 5G compatible but was 4G and compatible with the system. They then told me I had lost my phone number. I told them I wanted my number back. They said since it had been lost for several months, they could put in a ticket and try to get it back, but there was no guarantees. There are no long term contracts with Republic, so I told them I would sign up for one month but if they couldn't get my number back, I was going to drop service.

I thought some of what they were telling me was BS. During the 3 months after they dropped me, I was still getting phone calls on the old phone number when connected to a wi-fi system. I checked my credit card statement, and I was not billed during those months. I have no idea how my number was still active while connected to wi-fi, and I'm not sure what would have happened if they assigned the number to somebody else.

In the end, I got three months free service, my old phone number back, but I ended up with a $2 per month more expensive plan. I don't know how they got my old phone number back, but if the number hasn't been re-assigned, you should be able to get it back. It takes the carrier some additional work, but it can be done.

Originally Posted by sdbob

What happened to me. Kept getting a letter from Verizon 'my device is not 5 g compatible ' Received this for couple months last year. Finally called in December. Like you trying to contact a big co. Finally got to talk to a man. He asked me what I had,I said my home phone, he said you need to do nothing. Ok. I use this smart phone alot .home phone rarely,since wife past. I wasnt getting any calls. So I called my home phone,'number not in service', huh. Called V a Indian sounding woman said nothing could be done. I had to buy 'their' phone for about $90.00 . So I called again to complain ,got a mgr,female she tried to help but my old number is gone I had for 44yrs. Everyone, businesses know that number. Anyway she said if I had let them know,when talking to that man(he messed up wrong info) I could have received 'free' 5g compatible equipment.GRR. I'm glad the creator gives good information.