OK, so I called them back today and got a different guy on the phone and renewed my questions about why it takes so long. He called up their "portablility" dept. and their answer was that it takes longer for them for a series of reasons...because they're prepaid only, and they use GSM phone technology/sim card, and (probably) because as you've said they don't have their own network but piggyback on the system of others, it's a more difficult process for them to port over a number, although they can immediately assign a new number.

So...while I thought I was being smart by changing our numbers to a local area code with our current provider (we moved but kept our old wireless numbers for a long time), it seems that I've only made it a bigger problem...they can offer a "provisional" number, but once they start the request to port over the number, the number's dead for 1-2 weeks, so there's no way to carry two phones in the interim and not miss a call. I haven't seen that bit of info anywhere, and I was searching a lot of online reviews to get that.

That said, I'd so far back what Martin said about this phone (Nokia 1100) being very simple, very basic, and seeming pretty sturdy.

Dave