France | cheapest tariff for int'l calls (especially to Germany) also postpaid offers
 

Hello world,

a friend of mine is going to live and work in Paris from August.

So now he wonders which provider/tariff to chose for cheap calling home to Germany (especially to mobiles) and within France.

Also he would welcome reasonable data rates. He prefers prepaid offers, but postpaid contracts (forfaits) would be an option, too, as he'll stay in Paris for the long term.

Any suggestions?

regards,

Inquisitor

France is outer space for mobile tariffs, he would probably have to use a callback solution, see also SparRuf – Telefonieren nach Frankreich / Telefonieren aus Frankreich

France actually seems to be expensive, but I could find the following prepaid offers with reasonable rates to
Germany (fixed/mobile/SMS)
and within
France (fixed/mobile/SMS):

• Kertel Zemobile
  Germany: € 0,19 / € 0,34 / € 0,17
  France: € 0,29 / € 0,29 / € 0,10
  tariff details
  
• Primus Mobile
  Germany: € 0,17 / € 0,37 / € 0,19
  France: € 0,37 / € 0,37 / € 0,12
  tariff details
  
• Horizon Mobile
  Germany: € 0,16 (+ € 0,10 from 18h-0h) / € 0,35 (+ € 0,10 from 18h-0h) / € 0,20
  France: € 0,29(+ € 0,10 from 18h-0h) / € 0,48 (+ € 0,10 from 18h-0h) / € 0,15
  tariff details
  
• CallinEurope
  Germany: € 0,39 / € 0,39 / € 0,085
  France: € 0,19 / € 0,19 / € 0,085
  tariff details

However they all seem to have very fast credit expiry. A top up of € 7,50 will expire after only 15 days! What a rip-off!

Yes indeed you hit the big problem with French mobile...they steal your credit after a very limited period ranging from 15 days to 2 months.....this indeed is an area where the eu can and should get involved!

I'm actually using a Neo2 postpaid contract from Bouygues Telecom.
Bouygues Telecom : téléphone mobile pas cher, forfait Neo et carte Bouygues Telecom
It includes unlimited data, unlimited calls + unlimited messaging to France some hours a day (you have to choose which ones).
Calls to Europe are at the same price as the national ones, with per second debiting method, and are included in the bundle.
Costs when the bundle is finished, calls to France and Germany cost 38 cents a minute.

Mobiho can be added to the group that inquisitor found, but it seems to me that all per minute deals in France are expensive.

Simyo is 19c/min to France, and the credit expiry seems to look a bit better than some of the others. But it would need to be used with callthrough for Germany

Various illimité bundles look attractive, some on Orange as well, but several have time bands, like the one maccoy mentions above. Even then, that contract looks expensive when compared to other countries.

For a 3 week visit a couple of years ago, I nearly got an SFR card to use their l'appel = €0.30 option, costing €5 a month then calls to SFR and landlines are that price up to an hour, prospectively to use it with callthrough access, but in the end I didn't bother as this too has time options. Instead it was sms callback with Justvoip, then only 5 cents a minute to my O2 mobile forwarded to an IoM SIM; now JV is 7c/min UK mobile to home and use the Java client

Or how about solomo pro using a separate callback? .... though that comes out around the 19c of those French SIMs, and is more tiresome to use for outgoing, but could help people calling him from Germany.

Could it be worth trying out Fring and a VoIP provider with an add-on data package, or via wi-fi?

Thank you for your input, guys.

@maccoy
Neo2 sounds interesting. What about the data flatrate ("Web & Mail et TV 3G+ illimités 24h/24") - can you use it from a handset only or are you allowed to used it from a computer, too?

@andy
I also considerd callthrough, but I fear providers could block the dialin-numbers, like these wankers did here in Germany.
Are there VoIP-providers that assign local French DIDs so we could setup our own dialin-number on a FritzBox here in Germany?
Are there prepaid flatrate offers to French landlines without time slots?

solomo pro is a good idea for incoming calls, especially since I considered to let my mate's girlfriend switch to solomo pro anyway so he can call to France cheaper. I fear he will need a duoSIM phone.

VoIP-over-GSM/3G is too unreliable for us, since my mate is going to travel a lot and will often call from inside a car or a train, where data throughput is likely to become critical.

I thought Betamax gave French DIDs away on some of their plans. Did-ww.com sells French DIDs for US$5 a month. Their setup is reliable, but their may be cheaper deals.

Eutelia will let you buy french DID for Eur 2.50 a month. Dont know which cities they offer though. EUTELIA

@Stu
According to GratosTEL - VoIP-in DID Betamax Voipbuster, Voipcheap and some forum reports Betamax stopped assigning French DIDs back in 2007.
$5 a month is kind of expensive.

@migelli
I can't find any information on French numbers at Eutelia.

Anyway I found ippi, who provide free geographical DIDs, but only to "résidents en France métropolitaine" and they seem to do some geographical IP-lookup, so I can't register with them at least at this very moment, but I'll find a solution. ;-)