Key T-Mobile security feature protecting subscribers' accounts is broken

T-Mobile's Port Out Protection was created as a security tool designed to prevent a criminal from moving your T-Mobile phone number to another wireless firm without your permission. This would be attempted as part of a more ambitious plot to take over your mobile account, change all of your passwords, and rifle through your financial apps cleaning you out. Obviously, the Port Out Protection tool is important and is one of several features offered by T-Mobile that can keep a criminal from taking over your account.

But there seems to be a problem with Port Out Protection. A short and sweet post on Reddit from subscriber Nervous_Past_8448 says, "T-Mobile's 'Port-Out Protection' is broken and cannot be removed from some accounts." What this means is that if you have decided to port your number to another wireless provider, it will require you to remove Port Out Protection in order for you to move your number to your new wireless provider. However, this can't be done with Port Out Protection broken preventing T-Mobile account owners from disabling the feature.

The response from other T-Mobile subscribers is interesting. Some noted how the broken feature makes subscribers a hostage to the carrier, although that is overstating the situation, to put it mildly. It means that you cannot move your T-Mobile number over to another wireless provider until the Port Out Protection flaw is patched. But this doesn't stop you from closing your T-Mobile account and opening a new one from another firm. Doing this will allow you to switch wireless providers although you will be assigned a new number.

The only situation where you could face an issue from not being able to remove the Port Out Protection feature from your T-Mobile account would be one where you are planning to move your number to a new wireless provider to take advantage of a phone deal that requires you to port over your number. You'll often see such deals offered by a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), These are typically prepaid providers that do not own their own cellular network. These firms buy service wholesale from carriers like T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T and sell it to retail subscribers.

Keep in mind that Nervous_Past_8448 was speaking with 2nd Level Port Support and was specifically told that Port Out Protection is broken and that even when the tool is turned off, T-Mobile subscribers cannot port over their phone numbers. This is really more of an annoyance rather than a major problem but if you feel that you must get in touch with the carrier, you might want to contact T-Mobile's elite T-Force customer service team via "X" or Facebook.