Data in France [merged]

Stu · **Best UK Data Roaming in France -** 24-02-2008, 04:04

My best friend is going to spend several months in France this year in medium term accommodations in two different parts of the country. He needs laptop access to e-mail and low bandwith browsing (commercial database access -- no heavy high-end graphics)

He has good UK credit. None of the French cards appear to even offer data functions. I was wondering if anyone had any opinion about any UK operator's who had roaming in France. It looked like Vodaphone's Mobile Broadband had okish dataroaming in France.

Stu · 24-02-2008, 05:50

Does anyone know anything about this?

http://mobilesociety.typepad.com/mob...ible-fran.html

andy · 24-02-2008, 11:35

Compared to offers that are appearing in other countries, including on prepaid, with 1 GB or more for roughly €20 to €30, that doesn't look so good, but if your friend only wants email access maybe it will be enough

Stu · 24-02-2008, 15:41

Follow up Voice Question: Are there any True UK providers (e.g. not Jersey or IOM) which have free incoming and decent outgoing rates in France? 3 looks like the best so far, but I was wondering about the MVNO's.

Turning back to Data. I pay $19 US a month for unlimited with TMobile USA. While the network is 2.5g, I could download bit torrents and they wouldn't care. (I'll be reading War & Peace while I wait). While the connection speed is only EDGE, it will be 3g in just a couple of months.

When I go to Dubai, however, that same $19 will only get me 20 megs with one of the two carriers. The other is twice that. Everything is relevant.

There have been two to three threads on data in France and no one has had any great ideas. I'm all ears on this one.

andy · 25-02-2008, 01:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stu

Follow up Voice Question: Are there any True UK providers (e.g. not Jersey or IOM) which have free incoming and decent outgoing rates in France? 3 looks like the best so far, but I was wondering about the MVNO's.

Most of the mvno ones are the same as the Eurotariff. Yes, 3 is cheaper than Eurotariff with 10p incoming, or there's Vodafone Passport, but I also like O2's My Europe Extra: £10 a month fee gets 25p/min outgoing, free incoming, maybe with separate callback

PhilW · **France Data Roaming -** 25-02-2008, 21:13

My understanding of the France Telecom/Orange deal is that you are limited to the Orange mobile portal (the equivalent to 'Orange World' in the UK) and are not allowed to use your phone as a modem. The small quantity of data included in the plan would soon be used up if you did in any case. Basically it's designed for internet access on your phone.

Better would be the sim cards available from the Auchan supermarket chain, which are designed for full laptop access. Although not cheap by UK standards, they appear to be a much better deal than anything else available in France. See here.

The €29.90 card seems to include 50MB, subject to a maximum 5 hours connection time. A €25 top-up from one of the shops gets you the same, and must be used within 45 days. Higher (and slightly better) value top-ups can only be bought via the mobile portal. This might mean needing a french debit card or address. I hope to find out when I get to France next week.

ticex · 07-03-2008, 04:41

I've been living part of the time in France over the past 7 months and the solution I've ended up using is o2 with the MyEuropeExtra add-on combined with returncall.co.uk for voice calls and a prepaid 3 (UK) sim for occasional data usage. The data on 3 (UK) costs £3 per MB roaming in France and for simple email or occasional light web browsing I've found it far more convenient and better value than any of the French prepaid offers with their extremely restrictive topup voucher expiry. I've ended up losing all my credit due to missing the topup deadline so many times I just got sick of them and the rip-off charges. Ironically several of my French friends have started using this same solution as it's cheaper for them than using French sims

!

On thing I've recently discovered is the supermarket chain "E Leclerc" has launched an MVNO that as far as I know has a voucher expiry of 1 year. Sadly data rates are ridiculous, something like €15/MB, so it's only good for the occasional visitor wanting a French mobile that doesn't die every few months.

FabioG · 07-03-2008, 09:02

I use mobile 2.5g and 3g data roaming a lot and I have found that the following to be one of the best offer around:

http://www.vox.lu/maincontent.aspx?p...er&magickey=13

(click on the top left corner flag to change language to English).

Prepaid data roaming is 6.3€ in the EU and it's not that competitive maybe, but the postpaid packages are really cheap (I use the World Data 500 which gets me 500 Mb in roaming for 230€).

Sadly, unused Mb cannot be rolled over.

That's 46c/Mb

Alternatively, WD250 has 250Mb for 144€ (58c/Mb) and WD50 has 50Mb for 46€ (92c/Mb).

NB: the above rates are only valid while roaming in the EU, US and China.

I have never asked (I live in Luxembourg) but I am sure that they wouldn't mind activating the above postpaid offers to foreigners. Most of their subscribers are actually people living accross the border (Luxembourg is a small country).

In fact, vox also has a roaming deal for the above people: 10€/month you get free incoming calls on the French Orange network and 24c outgoing to French and Luxebourg.

Unfortunately: both offers are postpaid (ie, you need to come to Lux to subscribe and provide a credit card). Cheap things don't come easy...

AndreA · **E. Leclerc Mobile France -** 12-01-2009, 16:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by ticex

On thing I've recently discovered is the supermarket chain "E Leclerc" has launched an MVNO that as far as I know has a voucher expiry of 1 year. Sadly data rates are ridiculous, something like €15/MB, so it's only good for the occasional visitor wanting a French mobile that doesn't die every few months.

Oh yes. They are not so bad for a "one time" visit.

Quote:

Voir détails en téléchargeant la fiche tarifaire détaillée de l’offre E.Leclerc Mobile

WAP : 0,015 €/ko par 10 ko indivisibles

christophe · **French advices -** 13-01-2009, 13:12

For just data, there are no interessant prepaid plan in france. Our market is oriented on postpaid offers with a 24 month contract.
ex bouygyues telecom illimited 3G edge (5GO) on 29,90 Euros/month

Just for several months Data isn't affordable but there are some agreements with Vodafone and Sfr in france with passport data

Orange UK is completely separated from orange france leader in the country si you will paid for data.

You can check prepaid offers in france on

virgin mobile
ten
tele2 mobile
a mobile
carrefour mobile
U mobile
nrj mobile
universal mobile
coriolis telecom
leclerc mobile
simpleo
mobisud
transatel
mobiho
zemobile
call in europe
fnac mobile
M6 mobile
etc...

	(#1)
Stu (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Guru Posts: 1,091 Join Date: 11 Feb 2004 Location: Detroit (formerly Dubai) Country:	Best UK Data Roaming in France - 24-02-2008, 04:04 My best friend is going to spend several months in France this year in medium term accommodations in two different parts of the country. He needs laptop access to e-mail and low bandwith browsing (commercial database access -- no heavy high-end graphics) He has good UK credit. None of the French cards appear to even offer data functions. I was wondering if anyone had any opinion about any UK operator's who had roaming in France. It looked like Vodaphone's Mobile Broadband had okish dataroaming in France.

	(#2)
Stu (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Guru Posts: 1,091 Join Date: 11 Feb 2004 Location: Detroit (formerly Dubai) Country:	24-02-2008, 05:50 Does anyone know anything about this? http://mobilesociety.typepad.com/mob...ible-fran.html

	(#3)
andy (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Prophet Posts: 2,128 Join Date: 10 Dec 2004 Country:	24-02-2008, 11:35 Compared to offers that are appearing in other countries, including on prepaid, with 1 GB or more for roughly €20 to €30, that doesn't look so good, but if your friend only wants email access maybe it will be enough

	(#4)
Stu (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Guru Posts: 1,091 Join Date: 11 Feb 2004 Location: Detroit (formerly Dubai) Country:	24-02-2008, 15:41 Follow up Voice Question: Are there any True UK providers (e.g. not Jersey or IOM) which have free incoming and decent outgoing rates in France? 3 looks like the best so far, but I was wondering about the MVNO's. Turning back to Data. I pay $19 US a month for unlimited with TMobile USA. While the network is 2.5g, I could download bit torrents and they wouldn't care. (I'll be reading War & Peace while I wait). While the connection speed is only EDGE, it will be 3g in just a couple of months. When I go to Dubai, however, that same $19 will only get me 20 megs with one of the two carriers. The other is twice that. Everything is relevant. There have been two to three threads on data in France and no one has had any great ideas. I'm all ears on this one. Last edited by Stu; 24-02-2008 at 16:58..

	(#6)
PhilW (Offline) Junior Member Newbie Posts: 1 Join Date: 25 Feb 2008 Country:	France Data Roaming - 25-02-2008, 21:13 My understanding of the France Telecom/Orange deal is that you are limited to the Orange mobile portal (the equivalent to 'Orange World' in the UK) and are not allowed to use your phone as a modem. The small quantity of data included in the plan would soon be used up if you did in any case. Basically it's designed for internet access on your phone. Better would be the sim cards available from the Auchan supermarket chain, which are designed for full laptop access. Although not cheap by UK standards, they appear to be a much better deal than anything else available in France. See here. The €29.90 card seems to include 50MB, subject to a maximum 5 hours connection time. A €25 top-up from one of the shops gets you the same, and must be used within 45 days. Higher (and slightly better) value top-ups can only be bought via the mobile portal. This might mean needing a french debit card or address. I hope to find out when I get to France next week.

	(#7)
ticex (Offline) Member Advanced Member Posts: 67 Join Date: 05 Jan 2006 Location: Edinburgh & Brussels Country:	07-03-2008, 04:41 I've been living part of the time in France over the past 7 months and the solution I've ended up using is o2 with the MyEuropeExtra add-on combined with returncall.co.uk for voice calls and a prepaid 3 (UK) sim for occasional data usage. The data on 3 (UK) costs £3 per MB roaming in France and for simple email or occasional light web browsing I've found it far more convenient and better value than any of the French prepaid offers with their extremely restrictive topup voucher expiry. I've ended up losing all my credit due to missing the topup deadline so many times I just got sick of them and the rip-off charges. Ironically several of my French friends have started using this same solution as it's cheaper for them than using French sims ! On thing I've recently discovered is the supermarket chain "E Leclerc" has launched an MVNO that as far as I know has a voucher expiry of 1 year. Sadly data rates are ridiculous, something like €15/MB, so it's only good for the occasional visitor wanting a French mobile that doesn't die every few months.

	(#8)
FabioG (Offline) Junior Member Newbie Posts: 5 Join Date: 29 Feb 2008 Country:	07-03-2008, 09:02 I use mobile 2.5g and 3g data roaming a lot and I have found that the following to be one of the best offer around: http://www.vox.lu/maincontent.aspx?p...er&magickey=13 (click on the top left corner flag to change language to English). Prepaid data roaming is 6.3€ in the EU and it's not that competitive maybe, but the postpaid packages are really cheap (I use the World Data 500 which gets me 500 Mb in roaming for 230€). Sadly, unused Mb cannot be rolled over. That's 46c/Mb Alternatively, WD250 has 250Mb for 144€ (58c/Mb) and WD50 has 50Mb for 46€ (92c/Mb). NB: the above rates are only valid while roaming in the EU, US and China. I have never asked (I live in Luxembourg) but I am sure that they wouldn't mind activating the above postpaid offers to foreigners. Most of their subscribers are actually people living accross the border (Luxembourg is a small country). In fact, vox also has a roaming deal for the above people: 10€/month you get free incoming calls on the French Orange network and 24c outgoing to French and Luxebourg. Unfortunately: both offers are postpaid (ie, you need to come to Lux to subscribe and provide a credit card). Cheap things don't come easy... PostPaid SIMs: LuxGSM [+352 621] - VoxMobile [+352 691 & +352 661] - Prima [+378 66] PrePaid SIMs: Auchan Mobile [+33 6] - TIM [+39 334] - Ortel Mobile [+32 498] - GlobalSim [+44 4697] - Ventus Telecom [+372 53] Phones: HTC s620 - HTC Touch - Ericsson t630繁體版 - Philips Genie - Motorola International 3200

	(#10)
christophe (Offline) Member Official Member Posts: 39 Join Date: 05 Nov 2007 Location: France Country:	French advices - 13-01-2009, 13:12 For just data, there are no interessant prepaid plan in france. Our market is oriented on postpaid offers with a 24 month contract. ex bouygyues telecom illimited 3G edge (5GO) on 29,90 Euros/month Just for several months Data isn't affordable but there are some agreements with Vodafone and Sfr in france with passport data Orange UK is completely separated from orange france leader in the country si you will paid for data. You can check prepaid offers in france on virgin mobile ten tele2 mobile a mobile carrefour mobile U mobile nrj mobile universal mobile coriolis telecom leclerc mobile simpleo mobisud transatel mobiho zemobile call in europe fnac mobile M6 mobile etc... *International Prepaid services : YackieMobile +31, GoSimEkit +44 & Truphone +44* Last edited by AndreA; 13-01-2009 at 14:17..