using your mobile from france

mandywilliams

Hi
I go to the south of france about 4 times a year and find it very expensive to use my mobile,any tips?
I have a PAYG with o2,and mainly text off my phone while away,I do answer calls from home and make a few if neccessary but generally try to avoid that at £1.49 per minute.
All help appreciated!!!
Mandy

bigjeff

Hi mandy, i also make many visits to france and im with o2, but recently i found that my roaming provider was bouyg, so i bought a sim card from them, which by the way is not as easy as it is here in the uk, but on inserting the sim, it says your phone is locked to that network, so i couldnt use it as i need a code to unlock my phone.
So my advice would be, should you want to use your phone abroad, then firstly make sure your phone is unlocked, then buy a sim with the company that your useing as your roaming provider, and you should get cheaper calls

redux

There are 3 main networks and about 10 virtual ones (like Virgin or Tesco here). You can choose any of them in fact, once the phone is unlocked. For info on tariffs and links to the networks, see http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/france.html

Ordinary call charges in France are not quite so cheap yet, but there are several add-on packages which are interesting, maybe one on SFR with a maximum charge per daytime call, or on Orange there are unlimited weekend, evening or daytime add-ons.

Another thing to note is that the validity is shorter than here, if not used or topped up, though NRJ Mobile has a similar requirement to here.

International calls from there are still not cheap, around 50p per minute, so it would be worth using a callback service at around 15p a minute.

And people calling you can look for cheap calls operators on the MSE Callchecker.

mandywilliams

Many Thanks for the reply's,I will look into getting my phone unlocked first and then maybe try a french provider.

redux

I forgot to say - if your phone is a Nokia, you can ask for a code to unlock it, in a thread at the top of the board; read the first post for instructions.