LTE for visitors?

[wco81]

There aren't any prepaid products offering LTE access. However, it may be possible to sign onto a rolling contract for a month and cancel:

4G LTEEdit
Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free Mobile have mostly rolled out their 4G LTE networks and they have mostly nationwide coverage. Orange and SFR do not allow access to their new 4G LTE networks to prepaid customers, however they all offer rolling contracts which can be cancelled at free will. They all use standard European LTE bands (800 MHz and 2600 MHz) however Bouygues was recently granted permission to "refarm" it's 1800 MHz 2G network into a 4G LTE network. This frequency enables iPhone 5 and iPad mini/iPad 4 owners access to the 4G network since the iPhone 5 only contains 1800 MHz European LTE bands.

http://prepaidwithdata.wikia.com/wiki/France

So I see these plans "sans engagement" offered by Orange. Not clear if tethering is allowed or not.

http://sites.orange.fr/shop/forfaits...o_tablette.php

Anyone look into LTE bundles/plans at all?

[inquisitor]

Do you actually own an LTE device that supports the French frequency bands?

[wco81]

iPad Mini Retina:

Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n); dual channel
(2.4GHz and 5GHz) and MIMO
Bluetooth 4.0 technology
UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1900 MHz)
LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26)3
Data only4


Saw good speeds in Rome with TIM. It was 27/17 IIRC and without full 5 bars of signal.

[wco81]

Anyways, the claim is that Orange requires a French bank account for those "sans engagement" plans and you have to request cancellation in writing.

But the prepaidwikia site also has someone claiming he was able to pay for the Boygues plan with a credit card.

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by wco81

LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26)3

Not bad. Just for the records: there are different versions of each iPad which differ in LTE bands (see https://www.apple.com/ipad/LTE/), though the iPad Mini A1490 does indeed support all those listed above, which is quite remarkable. I didn't expect such wide compatibility to become available so soon.

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by wco81

Anyways, the claim is that Orange requires a French bank account for those "sans engagement" plans and you have to request cancellation in writing.

I've no idea about Orange, but Joe Mobile (an MVNO on SFR) also offers such "sans engagement" hybrid tariffs (mixture between postpaid and prepaid because you pay in advance and have cost control but you have to enable automatically recurring payment), but you need to provide a credit card from a neighbouring country as others are blocked for fraud prevention. So even if there's a way to pay by credit card, expect this not to work with a credit card issued by an American bank.

[wco81]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

Not bad. Just for the records: there are different versions of each iPad which differ in LTE bands (see https://www.apple.com/ipad/LTE/), though the iPad Mini A1490 does indeed support all those listed above, which is quite remarkable. I didn't expect such wide compatibility to become available so soon.

It's one of the reasons I bought it, because I wanted to use it tethered.

But reading through prepaidwikia site, it appears there are a lot of carriers where you can tether through Android but not iOS.

Also had considered the 4G version of the Nexus 7 but would have had to buy in Europe at 349€ and it didn't support as many bands but would presumably work in most European countries.

[inquisitor]

The other issue with Apple devices is that Apple restricts LTE access to those network they are partnering with (read: those paying a ransom to Apple). E.g. until recently Apple devices, though technically fully compatible, did not register on the German eplus network as it was not whitelisted.

[tux]

Orange "Let's Go" prepaid offer gives access to their LTE network

[wco81]

Interesting.

I had Lets Go in Corsica in April but I don't believe they have 4G there and I didn't have an LTE device at the time.

I still have the SIM.

Well I'll find out next month.