How to Migrate Your iPhone and Apple Watch to Xfinity Mobile From Verizon After Getting Xfinity Internet
Tags: Apple Watch, Mobile Phone, iPhone, Verizon, Xfinity Mobile

How to Migrate Your iPhone and Apple Watch to Xfinity Mobile From Verizon After Getting Xfinity Internet #hope Follow Dec 16, 2020 · 6 min read

Now that I had already installed gigabit pro and generated the first bill, it was time to finally migrate from Verizon to Xfinity Mobile because:

No matter how good it works, Verizon always sucked in my town and in my house.

Horrible call quality, dropped calls, never received calls.

I am using Verizon over WiFi because of this. So, then why not just use Xfinity which provides the internet anyway?

We don’t go out much now, so our actual data usage is very, very miniscule, but our bill is still too much and does not let us share below 5gb for everyone.

The key thing to remember here is that I waited for the Xfinity Gigabit Pro to be fully installed before starting the process.

What I liked:

$50 gift card currently for porting over if I bring my own phone.

$250 they apply to your bill over 24 months $10 per month when you purchase a phone and port over using the monthly payment option instead of paying in full.

It is quite amazing that with a 1gb plan for one line SIM it is only ~ $15 per month, and with the other line sharing data and ported over with the new phone, the total is only ~ $42 or so.

This compares to ~ $85 on Verizon without the two apple watches on it (total $20 for both watch plans). We have decided to not get the watch plans unless we find a real need for it when we all start going out again.

This finishes the initial part which was straightforward. Now comes the porting part which is not easy. I had to chat with Verizon to get that part going. Here is how it went:

You dial #PORT from your phone to get the number transfer pin which is active for ~ 7 days and can be used for porting either phone.

LIE: “One PIN is good enough for all lines”

LIE: As long as you have Verizon service, you can use either phone to dial that number again to get another number transfer pin in case it gets disabled after ~ 7 days.

I had to generate a separate PIN for each line I transferred over. This makes sense & is more secure. I could NOT use the PIN for one line when I tried to PORT over the other line.

“The PIN can be generated from either phone if it expires” “It is ok if one number is ported first and I generate the PIN again after a few weeks to port over the next number from the next phone”

The good thing is that when you do this process, it also asks you whether you want to “unlock” the numbers (to allow it to port over), you unlock the phone numbers and you should be good.

I also removed the plans from the iOS watch app and then in the same chat session, I cancelled the watch plans as well — which takes effect at the end of the billing cycle.

My iPhone XS Max did not like it after Verizon was removed and got confused. iPhone 7 did that process very smoothly though.

Remember that if you leave Xfinity Internet, they will add a $20 to your monthly bill. I won’t because I have Xfinity Gigabit Pro

How much am I saving?

Even removing the two Apple watches from the plan, my Verizon bill is:

~ $85 per month for 5 gb on Verizon

Note, we use less than 500 mb per month now

But, there is no option “lower” than the current one.

With Xfinity Mobile I will be paying ~ $15 per month for 1 gb internet (even that we don’t use now at home). With $250 paid over 24 months for a 128gb iPhone 12, the bill comes to:

~ $42 per month with 1 new phone for 1 gb on Xfinity Mobile

It is about an extra ~$24 for the phone contract.

for the phone contract. A few dollars and cents in taxes, etc make up the difference.

Atleast like Verizon I am not paying more for data I am not using.

We use around 8 gb per month (that is the max we have ever used no matter how much we have tried to use because we are not crazy enough to stream audio or video on cellular) when we go back to work, so that would be $60 per month (shared). So total with the phone at that time would be $60 + $24 = $84

~ $84 per month with 1 new phone for 10 gb on Xfinity Mobile

If one more person joins the plan later, with a new phone, we would still use under 10 gb (I know how much we use), so it would still be:

~ $108 per month, with 2 new phones for 10 gb on Xfinity Mobile

Only one of us use cellular data a lot, if that person moves to unlimited at $45 per month for that line and the other person uses 3 gb per month at $30 per month, that would be $45 + $30 + $24 = $99 per month

~ $99 per month with 1 new phone for 3 gb per month on one line, unlimited on other line on Xfinity Mobile

I am pretty sure Verizon is more expensive, because we have been Verizon customers for years now & I am used to paying like $140 per month even with only two people using up to 8 gb per month.

What I hated about Verizon was not necessarily the high service fees. It was the fact that after spending all that $$$ per month, my service still sucked badly. Very slow mobile internet, spotty calls, you name it — it was horrible.

Dec 23, 2020

The activation process online was super smooth and went without a hitch!. I did not have to call anybody.

I was able to test the connection when we went out a few days ago. I had very low expectations from the service as I knew it was Verizon beneath it. I am super surprised to note that even though the underlying network is Verizon, my cell service has never worked better than it does now.

I am getting much better service on Xfinity Mobile than I ever got with Verizon. I have never seen mobile internet work so well, and so fast as I have seen with Xfinity Mobile.

Of course, I cannot say for sure until we get back to office. But, from the little I know about how bad the service is in our area — the fast mobile internet was surprising.

Dec 28, 2020

I continue to be surprised by how well Xfinity Mobile is working even on cellular only when walking around my neighborhood. Previously when we were on Verizon, we have never ever seen the cellular service working this smoothly or well.

Now, this feels like real LTE. And what we had with Verizon earlier felt like something between 2G-3G (mostly I would say ~2.5G — not as horrible as 2G, but nowhere near as nice as 3G).

Remember though that the phones have always shown us as having “LTE” service even on Verizon. I had given up on “LTE” anywhere after 4–5 years on Verizon.

You never know, maybe I am the only guy in the neighborhood with Xfinity Mobile and that is why it works better than Verizon as everyone else is on Verizon (not sure).

To be continued…