an automatic mobile communicator depot system including a mobile communicator acceptor for accepting mobile communicators and providing mobile communicator acceptance inputs , a mobile communicator dispenser for dispensing substitute mobile communicators in response to substitute mobile communicator dispensing instructions , a customer interface receiving customer inputs identifying a specific mobile communicator with a specific customer , and a depot controller responsive at least to the customer inputs and the acceptance inputs and including dispenser control functionality for providing dispensing instructions to the mobile communicator dispenser to dispense a specific substitute mobile communicator to a specific customer and automatic telephone number transfer functionality for transferring a telephone number from a mobile communicator received by the mobile communicator acceptor from a given customer to the substitute mobile communicator dispensed by the mobile communicator dispenser to the customer .