Mobile phone sims and Internet connection in France

Hazy-thoughts

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Hi all, well we take the plunge just after Christmas and head off over the channel to French France for hopefully a 12 month jaunt.
We would like to know the best and obviously cheapest options for mobile phone and internet connectivity whilst over there. Can anyone suggest a sim card and dongle to help keep us connected with our family, friends and of course you guys while we are on our travels :cool:

Many Thanks in Advance
 
Hi Hazythoughts.
We find the cheapest way to keep in contact with friends & family back in the UK while away from home is Skype & free wifi connections. It doesnt matter then which country you are in. Also the person you wish to contact doesn't need a computer as you can also use Skype to landlines or mobiles. It works for us.

Regards Nolly.
 
lebara is probably your best bet , you can talk to them in english , and providing you use it once every 90 days the credit doesn't expire
only thing is all SIM's have to be registered in france , and you don't have an address there

try the uk lebara website and ask them , the french company is actually run from the uk

re broadband , dongles in france cost an arm and a leg to run ; better to rely on wifi from the fast food joints , they virtually all have the facility now
 
Cheers for replies guy's,
We will have an address in France we can use, so will check out lebara for phone sims. Must be honest the thought of fast food outlets is not something I had thought of, but to be honest we plan to be as far off beaten track as possible, so not really an option for day to day use. Regards French Dongles why so expensive and which companies are best to check out:confused:
 
If you have an address in France then Orange.fr does a 3G for 15 Euros a month with a years contract, and should that address already have an orange livebox package the tarrif is reduced to 10 Euros a month.

Regards Nolly
 
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well I live off the beaten track in france, dongle doesn't work here with most companies , bouygues works at 2g
 
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Maybe I am getting old. I don't use any of what you folks have. I have a mobile which is always switched off. I only use it for an emergency like a breakdown. I pop into internet cafe's enroute to read and send e-mails. There are loads of them around.
 
I am going over there to manage a fishery, so need mobile to help with day to day running and internet to be able to do website, and of course for contact to outside world as we are in sticks albeit only an hour or two from Paris.
 
Using mobile phones in Europe

There is a Yank company called Telestial - on International Cell Phones, World Phones, SIM Cards, Satellite Phones. They will sell you a Passport US Sim Card for US$29 (about £17 or so) and they give you an English (44) mobile telephone number that anyone can ring you on. You can receive telephone calls from 60 countries for free! You will need a 4 band (850/900/18001900) phone - can be bought on eBay cheap. It costs a bit to make calls but isn't too dear. Worth having a look at their website!
 
We have spent and lost a lot of money trying to stay connected whilst in France. Bought French PAYG dongle. OK if you can keep them topped up but because we have had breaks back in the UK we have found upon return that they have died and the horrid Orange FR wont let you make them live again. 60€ of Dongle down the drain. If you are there for a full 12 months maybe this wouldn't be so bad in your case though. Beware the French telecoms companies are nowhere near as liberalised and obliging as the UK are. More expensive, less competitive and flexible.

Have had SIM cards in phones and used them as modems. Even had a Sat modem one year - megga expensive.

Two suggestions.

It isn't that difficult to find free open WIFIs. Legal ones such as McDonalds and bars etc OR simply by motoring slowly round high rise residential areas and finding an open connection :eek: We will often sit in the van outside these places and no-body seems to take any notice of us.

Alternatively I know an English bloke living in Germany who is a MHomer and a techno wizz, who makes and sells Internet WIFI aerials. You simply stop up in a town/village, fix your temporary high aerial to the side of your van, bring the cable in through the window and join it up to your laptop. This extends your WIFI searching circle to a far greater distance and will more often than not pick up an open system somewhere in the vacinity. We have full timer friends who use one and they use Skype over it as well as the usual emails and web searching pretty successfully. They cost a bit >£100 but it is a once only purchase and then away you go.

If you are interested then mail me privately and I will put you in touch with him.
 
i know this may not be strictly following the thread but ,i have just changed my pay as you go mobile sim from t.mobile to lyca and have land line calls at 1p a min in the uk other mobile calls at 10p a min and texts at 5p each the sim works in my t.mobile sidekick without unblocking the phone i think it uses the orange network
www.lycamobile.co.uk - Cached
 
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www.leclercmobile.fr also does a flexible tariff where as your credit continues on instead of of losing what you haven't used each month.
Regards Nolly.
 
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Free internet

I use 'Fon' for free internet access. Check it out here Fon - A world of free WiFi It involves a one off payment for a router which allows you to log on almost anywhere in the world totally free. ( over 3 million access points)
 
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