Report on using Orange Mobicarte in France

[inquisitor]

Officially it won't. The question is how Orange technically prevent users to use the SIM in a non-handset. If they do it only by inspecting the user agent of http requests, then the above described workaround should let you use the SIM in a non-handset (with the side effect of some websites automatically showing their mobile version instead of the desktop one). If they however check the device's IMEI you will either need to manipulate the IMEI or use Wifi-tethering through a handset in addition to the user-agent manipulation.

Btw the last time I used a Mobicarte in France almost two years ago they were billing all traffic not using the standard http-ports (80, 8080) separately. So using an email client, instant messaging clients, ftp clients etc resulted in prohibitively high extra charges.

Let's hope France's latest market entrant Free will soon launch a prepaid product with affordable data rates available to visitors.