The Story of a French Phone Number

Another guest post from John

We knew from the start of our French life adventure that a French phone number was necessary in order to establish utilities here; not a small concern for someone who has bought, or is planning to buy, a home abroad. Last winter and early spring I was fretting about this regularly, imagining us arriving in Quillan to a lightless, waterless abode which wouldn’t be habitable for several days, and that’s if we were lucky. I foresaw us running up a huge hotel bill because it would be impossible to live in our own darn house. We tried to set up utilities through the office of the realtor who’d sold us the house, which is how things are often handled over here. (And she’d promised to do this for us.) But with March turning into April, and with her not responding to any of our emails, we contacted the lovely folks at Renestance, the same group that acted as our buyer’s agents last summer. The patient and dependable Gaïa at Renestance proceeded to contact our chosen utility providers, including Orange–one of the leading telecom companies over here–from whom we’d decided to get our home internet and mobile phone numbers. Gaïa kindly provided her personal phone number to those companies just to establish our accounts, with the idea that once we could add one of our own French phone numbers as soon as they were activated.

Theoretically, the latter should be easy, given that we are now in the age of the eSIM. That’s right, you can have a second SIM card in your phone without messing around with those tiny little chips. Or in other words, you can have two phone numbers–one French, one American–going on at once in the same phone. And, believe it or not, both numbers can be simultaneously active, depending on how you align your phone’s settings. And activating the eSIM simply requires a QR code emailed to you by the telecom provider. In fact, one can do this from the United States; which is what we attempted to do in April. Easy peasy, right?

One would think. When Gaïa first worked out our account with Orange–it feels like forever ago now–she informed us that we would receive the QR codes within 48 hours, so look for them. Well . . . I kept looking for them and looking for them. . . and no QR codes. Meanwhile, an appointment was scheduled with a technician to come to Quillan the day after we arrived and set up a “Livebox,” (the cable box); we received word over email that the Livebox had been dispatched to a local pickup point and would be waiting for us; and we got caught up in providing the various paperwork necessary to the water and electric companies. In other words, everything seemed to be proceeding fine. The QR codes for the mobile phones kept not coming—but, whatever, I figured this was just some corporate delay. It would arrive sooner or later, right?

Well, weeks later, as we waited at our boarding gate at Dallas-Fort Worth International, I received an email from Orange chastising me for not responding to their previous communications about “finalizing the contract”; our mobile phone numbers, Orange informed me, were not going to be activated. Not yet, at least. What? What email? I double-checked. I’d received no email from Orange about finalizing any contract. None. And what could I possibly do at a boarding gate at Dallas-Fort Worth? The afternoon of our arrival day in France I had our hotel print the document I was apparently supposed to have completed. I filled out the document and signed it, but then in attempting to upload the document, it became evident that Orange wanted more, namely proof of a French bank account (we had that), proof of identity (passport photos, no problem) and at least three months worth of utility bills on the house. Wait, what? Three months of utility bills just to get a lousy phone number? That couldn’t be right. What if you didn’t own a home? What if you were borrowing a friend’s place? What if you lived with your parents?

Long story short, we made a cry of help again to Gaïa, who assured us that all the various documentation we already possessed should be sufficient. Shortly after arriving in Quillan I emailed her about seven or eight separate documents–including proof of insurance on our home (for a cell phone number?).Gaïa bravely called Orange again. Later that day she sent me a message over WhatsApp to say that there was good news. Indeed, we (and now Orange) had everything we needed, and thus we should receive the QR codes within a week. That was good to hear–but a week? Why should it take a week to get a QR code, especially when originally it was supposed to come within 48 hours?

Eternal mysteries. At least it was coming, right? We would have French phone numbers on our iPhones, using eSIMs from Orange. Well, about nine more days went by with us patiently waiting, and still no QR codes from Orange. Meanwhile, several people in the English-speaking community here told us to just go to the post office and buy a physical SIM card. Put it in your phone. Voilà! You have a French number. And, they said, as long as you have an iPhone 13 or later, your cell can hold both a physical French SIM and a physical American SIM at the same time. So just before Stephanie went back to the U.S. for her current work trip we officially gave up on Orange. For the phone numbers, that is. We informed Gaïa, who completely understood our frustration and didn’t see any reason for the delays to begin with. She did carry out a follow-up call with Orange and found out that delay was supposedly caused by the fact that the account was in my name but the house was in both of our names. Supposedly, this explained the hiccup. Hmmm. That would have been good to know from the start–no one had ever intimated it—but, whatever, we were not going to wait around any longer for Orange.

Next day, Stephanie went to the post office, bought a physical SIM, and the person at the desk was kind enough to set it up on her phone while we waited. One problem though: the post office employee didn't see any way to put two SIM cards in at once. Hmmm. She put the tiny little American SIM in an envelope for us and we gingerly stepped it back home. There, I did some research online and found out that some iPhone 13 models will hold two physical SIMS neither Stephane’s iPhone 13 nor my iPhone 13 could. So while we finally had a French phone number to use for utility accounts and other reasons, her American number lay dormant, only to be activated again by her taking out the French SIM and re-inserting the American SIM. So far, so good. Neither SIM card has been lost. Long term though, we may want to purchase her—and me—a separate eSIM, and cancel the Post Office card. Those may have to be through Orange, though I shudder at the prospect. Who knows what reason they might give this time for not handing out a measly little QR code? Worries for another day. Because we finally have it, our French phone number, although that is a much longer story than it ever should have had to be.