Friday, 12 July 2019

The new SIM is in and working, but there's a temporary snag

As promised, the new BT Mobile SIM card arrived today. I immediately took out the old Vodafone card, and popped in the new one. But of course, my phone was locked to the Vodafone network, and I now needed to unlock it with a special code I'd already obtained from Vodafone. Would it work?

Well, to my surprise it did. 'BT' replaced 'Vodafone UK' at the top of the screen, and I was good to go.

The signal? Certainly better than Vodafone's. I live in a marginal-reception area, where the 4G signal is never excellent, and struggles to be adequate. Vodafone usually shows me one bar out of four for signal strength - on a good day. I'm now getting two bars out of four with BT Mobile. That's twice as good. A 100% improvement. I'm pleased.

The snag? I have to use the temporary mobile phone number that came with my new BT Mobile SIM card for the next few days. I gave BT the code to port my usual number from Vodafone a couple of days ago, and, as soon as my phone was unlocked, I got a message that they were already working on changing the temporary number to my usual one. This seems to have gone ahead automatically. But they need two working days to complete the porting process, and it's a Friday today. Nothing will happen over the weekend (isn't that feeble?) and it will therefore be Tuesday before my usual number is installed. That could be first thing on Tuesday, or close to midnight - who knows.

I can still be contacted by email, but it's a bind that someone wanting to speak to me, or text me, won't be able to for a few days. Unless I let them know what the temporary number is. Fortunately time flies, and this situation will be but a fading memory soon enough.

At least I've heard more about the major freebie that comes with the SIM card deal - that JBL Flip 4 bluetooth speaker. It will be sent to me 5 to 6 weeks from now, with an email advising me on the precise delivery date. I'm not on holiday then, so I should be able to wait in for it. It will have to be signed for on arrival at my doorstep.