Switching from Swisscom To Galaxus

This morning the transition from Swisscom to Galaxus was completed. I moved from Swisscom to Galaxus because it’s up to 50 CHF cheaper. Whereas I was paying about 70 CHF with Swisscom I now pay 19 CHF per month when I am within Switzerland, and I can pay 39 CHF per month when roaming in Europe. The one issue with this is that if I switch to roaming then it lasts for two months, not one before I can switch back.

Coverage

Swisscom has better coverage, in most places, so by switching to Galaxus I have to deal with lack of coverage in some places. This is because Galaxus uses the Sunrise network, rather than Swisscom. When hiking or in some buildings I lose network access.

Transfer Duration

If you want to get an esim it takes a few hours to get connected but if you want to migrate your phone number from your old provider to your new one it can take up to two months. I expected that the switch would be within a day or two.

If I had been waiting for my contract obligations to end then I would have understood the two month wait, but I have been out of contractual obligations for half a decade or more. I expected the switch to be by the end of the current month, rather than the end of the following month.

Switched in the Afternoon

The Switch took place between 13:11 and 14:11 yesterday. I expected it to be overnight, and to wake up to the message that the transfer had been completed.

My Swisscom sim was deactivated so that phone was offline. It then took a while for Galaxus to make the transfer. Rather than use the esim I already had they asked me to download a new esim, and that’s when I was on Galaxus with my old Swisscom number.

It took a while longer for the Galaxus cockpit to update with the right number. It’s at this point that I could create a secondary esim for the backup phone. The backup sim is so that I can use Apple Car play when I use the car that doesn’t have the Android equivalent.

The Long Wait

I have been thinking of leaving Swisscom due to their expensive contract for years, but I could not find another contract that offered unlimited data at a good price in Switzerland until Galaxus came along with their offer. I have used an Android phone with Galaxus for two months and so far I have not been nagged about going over the limit.

Porting Specific

If you get a Galaxus SIM for testing, and then you decide to port your contract from one provider to another make sure to cancel the test account as soon as the port is accepted. I expected that when I ported my Swisscom number to Galaxus it would change the phone number but preserve the old esim. It doesn’t. It counts the port as being applied to a new number and a new esim.

In Summary

When you’re porting your number from one telecom operator to another, if you have a test account to see if you like the service, then as soon as you decide to port cancel the test account and revert to your current provider while waiting for the port. The day before the port you will get an e-mail saying “the port will take place from Time A to Time B”.

When the port is done you will get an e-mail with the new esim, scan the QR code and within a few seconds you will have the old number on the new contract. That’s it. You’re done.

It’s quick and easy. My blog post is to clarify the process as I could not find answers to my questions.