About Assurance Wireless and Its Services
Assurance Wireless is a federal Lifeline assistance program and an Affordable Connectivity Program provider that offers discounts on monthly phone, wireless, and internet services to eligible low-income households. The company is owned by T-Mobile and supported by the federal Universal Service Fund.
Assurance Wireless offers a free Lifeline government phone program with free monthly services that include free unlimited data, texts, and minutes, and up to 10GB of free mobile hotspot data. Qualifying customers can also receive a free Android smartphone and, of course, free access to T-Mobile’s nationwide network. To qualify for Assurance’s government benefits, you must be at least 18 years old and a resident of one of the states where the company offers its services. You must also meet one of the FCC-determined eligibility criteria – have a low annual income (at or below 135% for Lifeline and 200% for ACP of the federal poverty guidelines) or participate in a qualifying government assistance program, such as Medicaid, SNAP, SSI, a Tribal program, etc.
Does Assurance Wireless Offer a Bring Your Own Phone Program?
As mentioned before, eligible Assurance Wireless customers will receive a high-quality Android smartphone from one of the most reputable brands. However, unlike many other Lifeline providers, Assurance doesn’t offer an official Bring Your Own Phone program. As such, officially, you can only use Assurances monthly services with a phone that was provided directly by Assurance Wireless. You can either get a free phone or buy a device from Assurance, however, it must be provided by the company itself.
Nevertheless, according to many reports and reviews from customers, you may, in some cases and under certain conditions, be able to bring your own phone to Assurance Wireless. Learn more in the following sections.
Can I Put Use My Assurance Wireless SIM Card in Another Phone Even If the Company Doesn’t Offer a BYOP Program?
Assurance Wireless Bring Your Own Phone program may not officially exist, however, you can always put your Assurance SIM card into another phone’s SIM card slot. However, the SIM card may not be able to properly connect to your phone and may not allow the device to access Assurance’s network and use its services.
Make sure that the device you bring to Assurance’s services is carrier-unlocked and compatible with Assurance’s network.
Carriers and MVNOs that offer an official Bring Your Own Phone (BYOP) program have a dedicated webpage where customers can enter their phone’s ID number, and the system immediately lets them know whether or not this device will work with their services. Unfortunately, Assurance doesn’t offer that option, as such bringing your own device to Assurance required a lot more guessing and experimenting.
How to Put My Assurance SIM Card Into Another Phone?
The first step in trying to bring another phone to Assurance and use it with Assurance’s SIM card and services is to physically transfer your Assurance Wireless SIM card into the phone’s SIM card slot. To do so, simply follow these steps:
- First, order your Assurance Wireless SIM card. You will receive a free SIM card kit with all the instructions. Also, make sure to prepare the device. See which devices seem to be most likely to work with Assurance’s services in one of the following sections.
- Locate and open the phone’s SIM card slot.
- Pop out the SIM card in the size that will fit into the phone’s SIM card slot.
- Gently put the SIM card into the device’s SIM slot and make sure the metal chip faces the right side. Close the SIM card slot.
- Turn the phone on and try to use Assurance’s services.
How Will I Know If My Assurance SIM Card Works With My Phone?
Now, it’s the moment of truth. Once your Assurance SIM card is inserted into the phone’s slot, you should try if it works. How to find out? You simply try to place a phone call or use Assurance’s monthly data. If you are able to do so, congratulations! You have just successfully brought your own phone to Assurance Wireless!
If not, you can try to activate the device.
How to Activate Your BYOP Phone?
Not all hope is lost if you have inserted your Assurance SIM card into another phone and were unable to place a call. You can still try to activate the device.
There are two ways to activate Assurance Wireless’s SIM card or device – by phone or online.
To activate the device by phone, call 1-888-321-5880 from your phone or any other device. Follow the pre-recorded prompts to activate your phone.
To activate it online, visit myaccount.assurancewireless.com/my-account/login and log into your Assurance account. Press ‘Activate SIM card’. Find the 20-digit ICC ID number on the back of your SIM card holder and enter it in the provided boxes twice. Follow the on-screen prompts.
If the activation is successful, expect to receive a text welcoming you to Assurance’s network.
Which Phones Are Compatible With the Assurance Wireless SIM Card?
Assurance Wireless is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that uses T-Mobile’s nationwide 4G and 5G networks and is owned by T-Mobile. Therefore, if you are trying to bring your own phone to Assurance, your best bet would be to use a phone from T-Mobile or any of its other MVNOs. As mentioned before, you won’t be able to check your phone’s compatibility in advance. You will simply have to put the SIM card into the unlocked device, turn it on, activate it and reset the network, and hope to be able to place a call or use the data.
Officially, the only phone models that are surely compatible are those provided directly by Assurance. See the company’s phone offer in the following section.
What Phone Models Does Assurance Wireless Offer Itself?
Assurance offers a decent variety of reliable Android smartphones from some of the most reputable brands, such as Alcatel and Motorola. However, as Assurance is a Lifeline provider, it does not offer the best devices with the most advanced features.
See the company’s current phone offer at assurancewireless.com/help-center/phone-guides.
Can I Take My Assurance Wireless Phone to Another Provider?
While bringing another phone to Assurance may be a bit tricky, taking your Assurance phone to another company should be easier (again, depending on whether or not this other company offers a BYOP program).
To take your Assurance phone to another provider, you must first unlock the device. To do so, follow the instructions at assurancewireless.com/unlock.
Then, you must choose the other provider and check if it allows you to bring another device.
Check your phone’s eligibility with the other provider on its website. If the device is compatible, you can order a SIM card, insert it into the phone’s slot, and start using the other provider’s services.