Changing cell phone providers

My 2 year contract with Bouygues for my cell phone ended mid January, and seeing how I never loved their offer and the monthly cost went up 2€, I decided it was time to change.

Right around the same time Virgin mobile started an ad campaign for their offer of 3 hours a month plus unlimited sms for 19,90€ without any contract. Seeing as how I was paying the same price for 1 hour of communication and 0 sms at Bouygues, I changed to Virgin but kept my number with the "portabilité" option.

Here's the process and what I learned:

1. If you got your phone for cheap through your mobile provider, you need to have had it for I believe 6 months minimum in order to unblock it (necessary to change operators). Also be aware that if your contract is not over, you will need to pay 25% of the rest of the contract to leave. I finished my 2 year contract so there was no problem about this.

2. I went to Virgin's website and it informed me that to change to them I would need to buy their SIM card for 1€ and provide them with my ROI number to keep my phone number. I called Bouygues customer service and got my ROI number.

3. Filled out the form online to order my SIM card, gave the ROI number, and then found out that Virgin is required to leave you 10 days before they do anything in case you change your mind (délai de rétraction).

4. Received my SIM card in the mail within a few days. Called Bouygues again to get the code needed to unlock my phone and learned through the automated voice system that I could actually get it on their website.

5. Ten days passed and nothing happened, so I scoured Virgin's website to read that once the 10 days have passed Virgin notifies your current provider you want to leave, but your provider might have a cancellation delay. For Bouygues this was another 10-15 days.

6. Finally received an sms from Bouygues saying they had received notification I was leaving them and that my number would switch over on X day.

7. On that day my phone was unavailable for several hours, but I was working and didn't need to be reached. When I got home I put in the Virgin SIM card, used the désimbloquage code, and tested my first call! Then I had to put the old card back in to copy all my contacts to my phone memory because I'd chosen to save them on my Bouygues sim card.

All in all, it went pretty smoothly, though slow. From Virgin's website I thought my number would switch over within a week or 10 days once I paid, but it was closer to a month. I delayed starting the process because I was going to England and didn't want the switch to happen while I was there.