Does anyone know about mobile Internet in France?

Vertigo

Vertigo

Vertigo

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28 Dec 2003
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Long shot I know but does anyone know about mobile Internet in France?

I'll be going over there later this year and taking my iPad with me. Rather than forking out for a UK SIM with data and paying roaming rates, it'd be far better if I could get some kind of PAYG or pre-paid SIM over there, on a French carrier, for Internet access on the move. Don't care about calls or texts, just want a decent data allowance.

I'm sure such things are available there but the question is whether I can get hold of one. Can you just buy them in supermarkets or mobile phone stores over there or do you need to order online and have them delivered? If the latter, could I sort this prior to departure and have it delivered to the UK?

Will do some investigation obviously but thought I'd ask on the offchance anyone here already knew :)
 
Only a few days. It's actually Le Mans so we'll be stranded in a camping site without access to Wifi which is why having Internet access on the iPad would be so useful.

Done some looking around and there are various options but most are rather convoluted, involving finding stores to buy the cards from then get them activated etc and, in many cases, it can take a day or two to get things working which is no use at all as I need it functional from the start.

Have found one place that will sort it all for you in advance. They're charging £50 for 3GB of data on Orange which sounds steep but isn't actually that bad for a decent chunk of data, especially compared to what it would cost to roam from the UK, and would mean we could use the Internet as much as we liked within reason.
 
Yeah, for my phone contract I'll just roam on Voda as they provide some data each day for very little cost. It's enough for emails and things like Facebook but you wouldn't want to make heavy use of it. That's what I'm investigating for the iPad - whether I can get a good chunk of data for when I'm over there so we can use it as much as we like.
 
(disclaimer, i work for voda etc...) Voda data traveller + using your phone as a wifi spot might be a better deal for you depending on your contract's data allowance.
http://www.vodafone.co.uk/shop/pay-monthly/travelling-abroad/vodafone-eurotraveller/index.htm

I know a bit about my competitors which might help. Free mobile do a deal for 20 euros which includes 3gig (capped) free calls to land lines (inc UK) and a few other nik naks. They are seriously cheap, they upset Orange and SFR dramatically that's for sure. Not sure how difficult it is to get a SIM through them but if you speak french it shouldn't be too bad: http://mobile.free.fr/
 
Try getting a "B & You" sim card from Bouygues or "La Carte" from SFR. B & You costs 4.99€ and top ups go from 10€ to 60€ (25€ gives you 500MB).
Orange would be more expensive than both of these.
 
Myshra said:
(disclaimer, i work for voda etc...) Voda data traveller + using your phone as a wifi spot might be a better deal for you depending on your contract's data allowance.
http://www.vodafone.co.uk/shop/pay-monthly/travelling-abroad/vodafone-eurotraveller/index.htm

I know a bit about my competitors which might help. Free mobile do a deal for 20 euros which includes 3gig (capped) free calls to land lines (inc UK) and a few other nik naks. They are seriously cheap, they upset Orange and SFR dramatically that's for sure. Not sure how difficult it is to get a SIM through them but if you speak french it shouldn't be too bad: http://mobile.free.fr/
Click to expand...
The issue with Free is that they take ages to send you a sim card. Maybe they improved that or allow you to get one from a shop now, not sure. That said, Bouygues aligned their prices with the ones from Free (AFAIK) and are a better company overall.
 
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