Revol Wireless no longer exists. This Ohio-based regional carrier ended service on January 16, 2014, after selling its licenses to Sprint.
Revol is gone
Revol stopped taking payments on December 17, 2013 and ended service at 11:59 p.m. on January 16, 2014. Creditors had taken over in 2011 after Revol could not pay $150 million of debt.
If you were a Revol customer
Sprint’s Boost Mobile bought Revol’s 12 PCS licenses but not its customers. Boost offered a free phone and a free month to customers who switched by December 24, 2013. Customers who paid through December 17 kept service to January 16, with no refunds.
How Revol Wireless ended
- July 2005: Revol launched in Ohio after buying Northcoast PCS.
- 2011: Creditors took over after Revol could not pay $150 million of debt.
- November 2013: Sprint agreed to buy Revol’s PCS licenses. Customers were not part of the deal.
- December 17, 2013: Revol announced the closure and stopped taking payments.
- January 16, 2014: Service ended.
The history of Revol Wireless
Revol’s original markets were Cleveland, Dayton and Toledo. It later bought Leap’s Toledo and Sandusky operations. The 12 PCS licenses it sold covered 56 counties in Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania, and the price was not disclosed. Its store count fell from about 40 in mid-2012 to about 20 before the closure.
How to find who holds an old number now
- Check an old bill or payment record. It names the company that billed you last.
- Run the number through a carrier lookup tool. It shows the carrier that holds the number today.
- Call that carrier and ask for the account number and transfer PIN.
- Start the port from the new carrier. Never cancel the old line first.
Your right to keep a number
Number portability is federal law, not a carrier policy. The rule is the FCC’s: Portability: Keeping Your Phone Number When Changing Service Providers.
How we verified Revol Wireless
Best Cellular tracks active carriers and defunct ones. We keep both, because people still search for brands that no longer exist. Every fact on this Revol Wireless page comes from at least two independent sources, listed below, and we leave a detail out when no source states it. Where sources disagree, this page says so. If you can document a correction, tell us and we will check it against the sources.
Tracked and active are different counts on this site. Revol Wireless counts in our tracked total, not in our active total, so it does not appear in tools built for live carriers.
Questions about Revol Wireless
Is Revol Wireless still in business?
No. Revol ended service on January 16, 2014.
Who bought Revol Wireless?
Sprint bought Revol’s 12 PCS licenses. It did not buy the customers.
What happened to Revol customers?
Boost Mobile offered a free phone and a free month to customers who switched by December 24, 2013.
Could Revol customers keep their numbers?
RCR Wireless reported they could. Fierce did not mention porting.
Does BestCellular.com list Revol Wireless as an active carrier?
No. We track Revol Wireless as a defunct carrier. It counts toward our tracked total but not our active total.
Sources and verification
Facts checked October 11, 2026 against at least two independent sources:
- RCR Wireless: Revol Wireless to close operations Jan. 16: the closure and Boost offer.
- Fierce: Regional carrier Revol to shutter operations Jan. 16: the shutdown and debt.
- Fierce: Sprint buys Revol’s PCS spectrum licenses: the spectrum deal.
- RCR Wireless: Revol Wireless buys Northcoast PCS: the 2005 launch.
Best Cellular. “Revol Wireless: What Happened,” BestCellular.com. https://bestcellular.com/revol-wireless/
Free to reuse with credit. Licence, sources and the full dataset. All defunct carriers are listed on carriers that shut down.
Live carriers to look at instead
Sprint’s Boost Mobile bought Revol’s licenses and offered its customers a switch deal.