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Buying a mobile phone sim (for internet) in France

Hi,

We're going to France on holiday. My wife and I are both on 3. She is on a contract and I am PAYG.
Seems like texts and calls home are now pretty good value, but mobile internet over there sounds horrendous. The guy at 3 said it would cost £5 a day to do it through them. He said it would be cheaper to buy a sim card whilst there.

Any suggestions on the best one to get / where to get it from.
We're going on the tunnel, so would be possible to pop into Cite Europe (presumably they've got phone shops in there, can't remember) or else could find somewhere along the way to Boulogne or beyond.

My wife uses about 20mb data a day. I hardly use any. We may be using hers for sat-nav whilst there, which I'm guessing may eat data. Other than that we may be able to restrict usage if it is really expensive.
If we just get her a French card, what would it cost me to text her on it? The same as it would cost me to text a phone back here? Or would it make sense for us both to get a sim while there?


Thanks,
Jim
«1

Comments

  • JimmyTheWig
    JimmyTheWig Posts: 12,199 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Oh, also...
    Bought my wife's phone from Carphone Warehouse (or similar) and was told it was unblocked for any network. Does that mean any French sim will work?
    Bought mine from 3. I'm guessing that means mine would be blocked to a French sim.
  • Bob_the_Saver
    Bob_the_Saver Posts: 5,610 Forumite
    edited 13 August 2012 at 11:27PM
    I can't answer you question directly but the French Mobile market is very different from in the UK and usually much more expensive, not to mention bl**dy minded.
    Don't forget France is a big place and the coverage is not always what you would expect in the UK.

    Try this as a starting point

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

    Best of luck!
  • benjus
    benjus Posts: 5,433 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    I went into a branch of SFR a few weeks ago to get a PAYG SIM card. They had a nice offer with unlimited data for a time period so I asked for that. The assistant told me it was only for iphones and refused to sell me one because I didn't have an iphone (it wasn't a microSIM either). I ended up not buying one at all.

    Anyway, at least you don't need proof of a French address these days to buy a PAYG SIM card.
    Let's settle this like gentlemen: armed with heavy sticks
    On a rotating plate, with spikes like Flash Gordon
    And you're Peter Duncan; I gave you fair warning
  • mchale
    mchale Posts: 1,886 Forumite
    ANURADHA KOIRALA ??? go on throw it in google.
  • bazster
    bazster Posts: 7,436 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    You do find the occasional French data SIM on fleabay, no idea if they are good value.
    Je suis Charlie.
  • benjus
    benjus Posts: 5,433 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    the coverage is not always what you would expect in the UK.

    Are you saying that you get a good signal and fast data rate in France, then?
    Let's settle this like gentlemen: armed with heavy sticks
    On a rotating plate, with spikes like Flash Gordon
    And you're Peter Duncan; I gave you fair warning
  • Bob_the_Saver
    Bob_the_Saver Posts: 5,610 Forumite
    edited 14 August 2012 at 11:55AM
    benjus wrote: »
    Are you saying that you get a good signal and fast data rate in France, then?

    No, I'm saying it's a big rural country and picturesque villages don't always have even 2g coverage - I know I'm sat in one now. :D
  • JimmyTheWig
    JimmyTheWig Posts: 12,199 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I couldn't make much sense out of that, I'm afraid.
    mchale wrote: »
    Made a little more sense.
    So from http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/francia/carrefour.php are they saying that for 4 Euros I can buy a card from Carrefour that will last for 15 days and then I get 10KB of data for 15 cents?
    ...
    Hold on, I read that as 10MB. 10KB? Around 15 Euros for 1MB? That's horrendous!!!

    Have I read that right?
    No, I'm saying it's a big rural country and picturesque villages don't always have even 2g coverage - I know I'm sat in one now. :D
    So are you saying that even if we do the £5 a day thing from Three we may not get sat nav on my wife's phone throughout?
  • Bob_the_Saver
    Bob_the_Saver Posts: 5,610 Forumite
    edited 15 August 2012 at 2:02PM
    I couldn't make much sense out of that, I'm afraid.


    Made a little more sense.
    So from http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/francia/carrefour.php are they saying that for 4 Euros I can buy a card from Carrefour that will last for 15 days and then I get 10KB of data for 15 cents?
    ...
    Hold on, I read that as 10MB. 10KB? Around 15 Euros for 1MB? That's horrendous!!!

    Have I read that right?


    So are you saying that even if we do the £5 a day thing from Three we may not get sat nav on my wife's phone throughout?

    You might not, my nearest 3g coverage is miles away. Nearest 2g is the next village. Depends where you are going. Lets face it plenty of places in the UK dont have even 2g. If 98% of the population do have coverage that's going on for 1.5 million that live in places that don't.
    Yes mobiles in France usually work out more expensive than in the UK.
  • JimmyTheWig
    JimmyTheWig Posts: 12,199 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    So all in all, it sounds like the £5 a day from Three sounds like the way to go.
    Seems silly to pay for a card, etc, that won't work when we get there.

    Does anyone know if I can get a better price out of Three than that?
    The guy in the shop was a little vague about whether we needed to phone Three to get this deal or not. Any ideas?
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