Mobile phone connectivity in France

slinga

I don't have or use a mobile phone, but the missus has one.

She bought the phone in UK and it has a Singapore Sim card because we live there 6 months of the year.

The phone works perfectly in Singapore and UK, but fpr 2 years on holiday in France it has refused to get a connection.

The missus emailed her Singapore Sim provider, M1, but although they suggested this and that the phone still wouldn't connect.
So we went into the Nokia office in Bordeaux.

The guy there tried for 45 minutes to get a connection but couldn't.

He was certain that the fault lay with the Singapore provider.

Obviously we are back in UK now and the phone works perfectly.

Any of you lot got any ideas what the problem might be.

When we are back in Singapore we'll go to the provider there but because the problem only occurs in France I'm not sure they'll be any help at all.

[Deleted User]

My advice would be to bung in a PAYG sim.

If you are only/mostly going to be making calls within France, use a French sim.

If you will be ringing back to the UK a lot, use a UK sim.

I'm with Virgin Big Talk, and calls from Europe, to the UK, are 18p per minute, with texts at 5p each.

I_have_spoken

Any of you lot got any ideas what the problem might be.

No roaming agreements with M1 and/or a block on roaming outside of the UK

coolagarry

I'm with 3 mobile and their 'feel at home' contract means that I can take my 'data', 'talk minutes' allowance etc , with me to a number of countries in the world, including France. I was in France recently and it worked perfectly. I used my phone the same as I would at home and there were no extra charges. (Unfortunately it doesn't cover Singapore)

grumbler

coolagarry wrote: »

(Unfortunately it doesn't cover Singapore)

... and is limited to 2 (1?) month per a year.

redux

Some networks offer roaming in more countries to their contract customers than those on pay as you go.

If your Singapore SIM is on pay as you go, then this might be one possible explanation, that they cover UK but not France.

Even if that's not the explanation, you'd get cheaper possibilities with French and probably also UK SIMs.

slinga

I_have_spoken wrote: »

No roaming agreements with M1 and/or a block on roaming outside of the UK

Apparently M1 have an agreement with Orange for roaming in France.

The phone is under contract.

We use it soo little, just for initial contact with gite or apartment owner, that we've always thought that buying a French Sim card wasn't worth it.

macman

But where in France? Many rural areas of France have little connectivity, let alone 3G. Are you saying that there is no signal anywhere in France, or just at your gite? Can you get a signal on another handset in the same area?
First thing to do is try it with another SIM to see if this is a phone or network issue.

slinga

The Nokia guy who spent time on it, see above, said the phone was fine.
You know the power of the connection by the number of bars showing on the phone screen.
It was everywhere from La Rochelle to Bordeaux, even close to masts.

macman

Is it set to 'select network automatically when roaming'?
Like I said, instead of relying on someone else telling you 'the phone is fine', you need to test it with another SIM.