Like its sister company, Mobile ESPN, Walt Disney’s attempt at building a cell phone company has failed. Disney Mobile will cease operations at the end of the year, with voice, messaging and Family Center services ending at that time. Existing Disney Mobile customers can cancel service before that, without termination penalty, as long as their bills are paid in full. It looks like there will also be some sort of reimbursement program for the phones and accessories customers bought, although details aren’t yet available.

For those looking to switch carriers, please check out our rate plan finder, CellCalc(TM).

For those who will be keeping their Disney Mobile numbers when they change carriers, please visit our Number Portability Information Center for some information on that process. The most important thing to remember is to establish service with the new carrier before you cancel your Disney Mobile service. (Actually, the process of porting your number should automatically cancel the service). If you cancel before you port your number, you will lose ownership of it, and not be able to transfer it.

In our prior post we spoke about the free cell phone insurance benefit available with the new AT&T Universal Savings & Reward Card. That feature applies regardless of carrier.

However, for AT&T and former Cingular customers, there is an even better benefit. The card will reimburse you up to 10% of the cost of AT&T products and services, including your wireless phone bill, for 12 months; 5% thereafter.

The AT&T Universal card has no annual fee and offers a 0% introductory APR on balance transfers for 12 months. To apply, click here.