GPRS in France
 

In April I will be sailing from the south of France to Corsica and then Italy. I need access to the internet by GPRS for weather forecasts. Once I get to Italy I can use a Wind offer but I'm looking for the cheapest GPRS deal in France - which has to beat the 5GBP (€8.5) / Mb which Virgin UK gives.

I see that Orange FR offers 'option internet' which gives 10Mb for €6 per month. I think that can be used with a prepaid 'mobicarte'
http://animation.orange.fr/frameset/....php?SA=MOBOIM

(It says on that page that the 'option plus internet' is not available with mobicarte.)

Can someone confirm that 'option internet' is in fact available with a prepaid SIM?

Any cheaper options for France? Ideally I'd want >30Mb a month.

Réponses en français bienvenues.

Dave

Follow up: I now have an Orange FR mobicarte and I've been trying to see how to subscribe to this (though I'm still in the UK with no credit so I can't actually subscribe).

Result: I don't think this 'option internet' actually exists - or if it exists it's unavailable to mobicarte. When I log in I can't subscribe to the option. Although the web page above obviously exists I think it's an orphan; if you follow the crumbtrail back you can't return to it.

So, with a combination of high GPRS cost and ludicrous credit expiry rules, I don't think I'll be using this card.

I'll have to stick to my UK virgin card at 5GBP/Mb.

Dave

I asked on French forum and was told that 'option internet' is available with mobicarte: #123# or 220 to subscribe. 6€ for 10mo
I'll try it when I'm there in April.

Looks like the details are on this page:
http://mobile.orange.fr/0/visiteur/P..._internet.html

Seems that mobicarte can get 10MB for 6 euro, or 5MB for 3 euro, but not the middle option, and no free initial month. No wi-fi. Has to be used within 31 days of activating.

Yes, absolutely correct. The mobicarte users get charged once for the money and have 31 days to use up the volume that they purchase. As far as i understand the option does not renew itself on the prepaid cards.

Chris

Yes, that's what it says, but have you actually used it? If so can you tell me the APN, username, password, and SMTP server? (I've found various suggestions for these on the web but I'm looking for confirmation from someone who's actually used it.)

I tried 'configuration' on the orange website and it offered to send me a WAP config. I've also downloaded the 'kit connexion' - which is for a PC card. It contains an APN - but it's not one that I've found elsewhere. TIA

If it helps you:
These are all configurations i have for Orange France:

[Orange F]
; France
IconIndex=-111
CountryProvider=33
HomeNetworkNumber=20801
SMTP=smtp.orange.fr
Network=UMTS,GPRS,CSD,WAPCSD,WAPGPRS
UMTS=Orange 3G
GPRS=Orange GPRS
CSD=Orange GSM
Username=orange
Password=orange
APN=orange.fr
DNS1=194.51.3.56
DNS2=194.51.3.76
UMTS Username=orange
UMTS Password=orange
UMTS APN=orange.fr
UMTS DNS1=194.51.3.56
UMTS DNS2=194.51.3.76
CSD Username=orange
CSD Password=orange
CSD PhoneNumber=+33674501200
CSD ExtraDialString=+CBST=71,0,1
WAPGPRS APN=orange
WAPGPRS Username=orange
WAPGPRS Password=orange
WAPGPRS IP=192.168.10.100:9201
WAPCSD Phonenumber=+33674501100
WAPCSD Username=orange
WAPCSD Password=orange
WAPCSD IP=192.168.10.100:9201

So as it seems there is only the one APN for all traffic. Usually you dont need to use the Orange SMTP-Server. Just use the one of your email provider - but the one from Orange is also in the settings...

Chris

It does help. Thanks a lot, Chris. I will try it when I get to France.
The 'kit connexion' from the Orange World page includes a reference to APN 'internet-entreprise' which is obviously for business subscribers.
Dave

any luck with the orange mobicarte gprs yet? i tried to buy one online but it only works when you're french. the question is, can you simply walk into a store in france and buy one? or will they require french passports etc?

also... can you have several of this 10mb/6e options after another (in the same month) or are you sort of fucked when the 10mb are gone?

greetings,
joe

I'm not in France until mid-April so I haven't tried it yet.

I bought the SIM on French ebay. It was already registered (I assume by the seller - though the SIM was still in its carrier). I looked online and the number's in somebody else's name. I have no credit and because of the stupid credit expiry rules I'm not going to recharge it until I get there.

I expect to have to ring their helpline and have an argument!

I don't know how easy they are to buy in France.

Dave

Usually it's not a big problem to buy a sim-card in France, but you have to register using a French address if I'm not wrong. Usually a hotel address should be ok... ;)

any news yet with the frenchie sim? does it work :)?

First the good news. I confirm that you can subscribe to Option Internet with an orange.fr mobicarte. It involved ringing 722 (not free) and asking. I got an SMS confirming.

I don't think it would normally be a problem except I got this card in the UK from ebay.fr and it's actually registered in someone else's name. This caused a protracted discussion; they wouldn't do it until I could remember that person's name.

Now the bad news. I can't make a GPRS connection. I'm using APN="orange.fr" user="orange" pswd="orange". My PDA makes a PPP connection, authenticates (PAP) OK, gets DNS info - and then gets thown out. The phone (Nokia 6310i) says "subscribe to GPRS service first" or something similar. This suggests to me that I need to subscribe to a data service separately but I can't see how to do that on the orange.fr website. Anyone got any ideas?

I'm back in France next week, and I'll try ringing 722 again: I still have €2 credit from my €10 - having transferred zero bytes so far. But I'm not any more throwing away any more euros on this.

Having subscribed I can see nothing on the orange.fr website to tell me how much of my 10Mb I've got left. As to whether Option Internet automatically renews every month - something the helpdesk said suggested it did but I don't know.

I got this working. The APN for mobicarte is 'orange' not 'orange.fr' which is for contract. It works here in the UK anyway. So: APN=Username=Pswd='orange'

I connected an email client and downloaded one email. My phone registered 10K of data (2½ sent, 7½ rec'd)

#123# does not report data allowance remaining.

The orange.fr website now tells me (mon suivi conso) that I have 9.51 Mo of my 10 left. Hmmm. Perhaps it's 'cos I'm roaming - lets hope so or this 10Mb is going to be short lived. Anyway, it does work.

Revenons au France!

Dave

ok, thanks for the info!

Can you unsubscribe from the service online? What happens when the 10MB are used up?

Is there no alternative to Orange to get cheap prepaid GPRS? As it looks, Orange is the largest provider in France, and - at least in Germany - the largest provider is often not the cheapest.

BTW, there's also Vodafone WebSessions which can be used in various countries with a Vodafone SIM card. Cost is about 15 EUR/day which can be a good offer, depending on the usage scenario.

AFAICS you can neither subscribe nor unsubscribe online - though the orange.fr website is terrible so it might be there somewhere.

When you use up the 10MB it simply swallows the rest of the credit on the card - in my case 4EUR. As I already said, I found no way to find out my data balance online or via messaging.

Option Internet Plus with a cheap subscription (I think there's one at 7EUR/month) might be more practicable if visiting France a lot but I don't plan to do that.

Dave