Prepaid T-Mobile and moving out of service

[Studentofthe abyss]

I have a Galaxy SII which I love, and am on T-Mobile pre paid. I am moving to an area they do not have service unfortunately. I wish to keep the phone but only Verizon and At&t have coverage in the area. What do I do? Verizon says they only have 1 phone, theirs, for prepaid and that my phone is no good for their coverage. At&t says they do not do SII but only SIII.
Can I unlock my phone and then purchase AT&T pre paid and be all set?
Thank you for any help!

 

[UniqueName]

T-Mobile should be kind enough to unlock the phone from them for you. They don't have to do this but they usually will and you have a good reason. It helps also if you've had service with them for more than a year.

Once it's unlocked you can use AT&T and should be able to get 3G service. Call AT&T to port your number. In any case you don't really have a choice and prepaid won't cost you much to find out. You can even downgrade your T-Mobile to $.10 a minute and keep your account alive for only $10 a year but you won't be able to port your number then.

 

[Studentofthe abyss]

T-Mobile should be kind enough to unlock the phone from them for you. They don't have to do this but they usually will and you have a good reason. It helps also if you've had service with them for more than a year.

Once it's unlocked you can use AT&T and should be able to get 3G service. Call AT&T to port your number. In any case you don't really have a choice and prepaid won't cost you much to find out. You can even downgrade your T-Mobile to $.10 a minute and keep your account alive for only $10 a year but you won't be able to port your number then.

Thank you.
Does this mean once I unlock the SII I can purchase a pre paid for AT&T and be all set? Is not important whether I keep the number. I have only had the phone for 2 months. It just turned out I got a great deal on a lease to open a restaurant and can't pass it up so have to relocate. Will T Mobile unlock because they don't have coverage where I am going to be?
Thanks again.

 

[UniqueName]

Yes, once it's unlocked from T-Mobile go to an AT&T store and purchase/cajole a prepaid sim and activate it with them. T-Mobile should be willing to unlock it and again you have a good reason.

BTW, you have a GSM phone which only works on T-Mobile, AT&T and MVNO's who use their network such as Straighttalk. Verizon is correct that your phone won't work on their network. Also unlocked in this case just means you can use the phone with any 850/1900 GSM network providers. It doesn't mean it's rooted or anything like that.