New phone. Who dis?

My friend Dave Miliiti told me a story twenty or so years ago about how his mom believed that eventually computers would be as easy to use as phone. Her prediction panned out, but not necessarily in the direction that she had anticipated. I was reminded of that story today, while I was dealing with continuing phone troubles.

I had configured my phone to be capable of international data and roaming before I left Omaha. In addition, Frances and Tinca had suggested that I get a local SIM or eSIM when I arrived in Paris, because that would likely be cheaper than relying on the roaming. 

When I landed in Paris, I took their advice. My phone isn't compatible with eSIMs, so I bought a Holiday Europe SIM from Orange. Upon installing it I got a text message from Orange confirming that it was working and letting me know that my new French number was +33 6 78 06 21 55. But it wouldn't pick up a data signal even after several restarts. I had to rely on Wi-Fi for data, which is pretty much limited to the airport, train stations, and hotel. Later in the day, and on the next day, while still in Paris, the phone did get a 4G signal for much of the day. But no such luck in Saint Etienne or in Bordeaux. The Uber driver in Saint Etienne said that Orange has one of the best networks in France, and that it should have really good coverage in the city. (And it worked for part of one day in Bordeaux, but not the other two days.) It makes it hard to navigate on the go, and hard to look up translations if you can only do it at the hotel and the train station. (And when I get around to writing up Day 3 in Saint Etienne, you'll hear how it makes getting to the train station stressful.)

I put up with only having data access at Wi-Fi spots until today. When my phone also proved to not be able to make a data connection in Lille, I decided to walk to the Orange store and see what they could do. The first clerk was very nice, and understood my problem. She did not feel that her English was good enough (although I thought it was fine) and while she didn't say it, I'm sure she knew that my French wasn't good enough to have a useful troubleshooting session. So she had me wait about ten minutes until a co-worker with better English came on shift.

The new co-worker was great. He tried resetting a few things and even tried a brand new SIM. He has never seen a problem like this and after about 15 minutes of trying, he said he had no more ideas. So I bought a new phone and put the Orange SIM in it. I'll carry both phones for a while, using the new one for data access, or as a hotspot for the old one when needed, until I get enough apps installed on the new one. Worst case, I'll just keep carrying both of them. And then when I get home, if the problem with the data connection turns out to be that my phone is broken, I'll already have a new one ready to go.

...doug