France - Cell Phone GSM + Data

Hey everyone,

I am in the USA and I am going to be traveling to France in ~20 days. My current cell phone provider is Sprint and the phones are not GSM. So, I need to purchase an unlocked GSM phone and then get a (prepaid?) SIM card for France. It is VERY important that I have unlimited data (or whatever the closest to unlimited is). I am planning on purchasing an Android GSM phone as that is what I am used to.

Can anyone help me with suggestions on how to get a French GSM card? I found a thread that listed some French GSM sales websites, but the thread was for someone in England and I am not sure that the same info applies to the US. (Will they mail me a card here?)

Also, Any suggestions on an Android phone I can buy unlocked here in the US that you have used and works well?

Sorry if these are silly requests, I have not been to France..

Thank you!

Hi shocked1, and welcome to FlyerTalk!

You'll want to check out the following carriers that have good prices without contracts:

Virgin Mobile (http://www.virginmobile.fr/nos-forfaits.htm). In Paris, you can sign up for their services at Virgin Megastores and at the Phone House (among other places).

SOSH (run by Orange) (http://shop.sosh.fr/forfaits-mobiles). I'm not sure if you can get these deals in Orange or Phone House stores.

This might be problematic, however, in that the providers might ask for a French bank account in order to directly debit your monthly fee. I'm not sure if they have a secondary option for non-French account holding customers.

Hi,

Thank you for your response.

I was hoping to find somewhere that I would be able to purchase the GSM card online that would be able to be mail the card to me here in the US. Also, if anyone has any recommendations on any android phones that anyone has taken from the USA to Paris and then used a pre-paid GSM card would be great.

Thank you

Your best bet is to stop into an Orange or Bouygues shop first thing in France, where they will sell you the right product and you can see it working before you leave the premises. Buying this by mail is risky in that you need data. Phone calls only would cause fewer issues.

There can be some problems with providing your own phone for data use in Europe. Blackberry will not work at all for data, unless you roam with your US Sim card.

IPhone unlocked is probably the best bet, unlocked will be pricey though-- also the French rep needs to change 1 setting in the protocol for data to work.

I'm in France right now and bought an Orange Mobicarte SIM off of eBay and followed these instructions:

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

I got the email package as well as I needed it for work and it took a full day before it became active but the data was up and running in 3 hrs.

Hope this helps.

If you haven't left yet, Sprint just released a dual-mode Android phone. It's the HTC Evo Design, and I just picked one up for myself last week. It has a SIM card that you can activate when you leave the US (or you can put a new card in). The caveat is that you have to tell Sprint when you are leaving so they can switch the phone from CDMA to GSM.

http://www.callineurope.com/cgi-bin/cie.cgi?b=ok&cid=new&z=%28null%29&pi=%28null%29&p=pass_france.shtml

If you haven't left yet, Sprint just released a dual-mode Android phone. It's the HTC Evo Design, and I just picked one up for myself last week. It has a SIM card that you can activate when you leave the US (or you can put a new card in). The caveat is that you have to tell Sprint when you are leaving so they can switch the phone from CDMA to GSM.

Yeah, but it's $1.50/min for talking, and 3c per kilobyte for data... Can easily add up to hundreds of dollars in data alone...

TMobile is cheaper, and you use the same SIM without calling anyone. Just turn the phone on when the plane lands.

Also, if you use a TMO Blackberry, they have unlimited international email roaming for $20 extra for a month... and the BBM feature is free to and from anywhere in the world.

Yeah, but it's $1.50/min for talking, and 3c per kilobyte for data... Can easily add up to hundreds of dollars in data alone...

TMobile is cheaper, and you use the same SIM without calling anyone. Just turn the phone on when the plane lands.

Also, if you use a TMO Blackberry, they have unlimited international email roaming for $20 extra for a month... and the BBM feature is free to and from anywhere in the world.

Right, but OP already *has* Sprint, so may be eligible for an upgrade or other discount on the phone. That may make getting a SIM in France less expensive (and less hassle) than purchasing a separate Android phone (and still having to get a SIM).

I would NOT recommend using the Sprint International option for any period of time, but the OP wasn't looking to do that anyway.

I bought a SIM in an Orange store in Paris in about 15 minutes to put in an unlocked phone for cash. If you bring your phone to France it's pretty easy to get the sim there.

I bought a SIM in an Orange store in Paris in about 15 minutes to put in an unlocked phone for cash. If you bring your phone to France it's pretty easy to get the sim there.

How much did you pay, and did you get data?

How much did you pay, and did you get data?

I got something like this but from a store and not online.
Hmm, the link did not work but you can go to boutique.orange.fr and look for carte prépayée

I only used voice and I think it was around 10 Euro including 5 Euro credit and I put another 10 E on the card (I was only in France for a few days and was more interested in receiving calls from the US on a local number than making calls).

http://www.telna.com/

I use these guys. .15 a minute .30 per MB

I got something like this but from a store and not online.
Hmm, the link did not work but you can go to boutique.orange.fr and look for carte prépayée

I only used voice and I think it was around 10 Euro including 5 Euro credit and I put another 10 E on the card (I was only in France for a few days and was more interested in receiving calls from the US on a local number than making calls).

Oh, ok. So you make your callers pay the international rates to call you! ;)

OP, incidentally, has a big issue with data rates.

Note about telna posted about above: This is a site for calling international long distance from your home or cell phone while in the US. Not relevant to this discussion...

TMobile is cheaper, and you use the same SIM without calling anyone. Just turn the phone on when the plane lands.Tmobile US is NOT cheaper than the Sprint numbers quoted earlier. Tmobile US doesn't really have any international roaming plans (I think they're the only US carrier that doesn't have some sort of reasonable option). You pay $10/MB in CA, $15/MB everywhere else. http://www.t-mobile.com/International/RoamingOverview.aspx?tp=Inl_Tab_RoamWorldwide

Also, unless you're on an annual contract with them, you can't roam internationally.

Also, if you use a TMO Blackberry, they have unlimited international email roaming for $20 extra for a month... and the BBM feature is free to and from anywhere in the world.I see some mentions of this in the Tmobile forums, but I don't see the plan listed with their other international rates. It may not be available anymore.


shocked1 - You might want to try looking through this thread in the technology forum. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-technology/1093467-pre-paid-data-sim-cards-consolidated-thread.html

Oh, ok. So you make your callers pay the international rates to call you! ;)


Skype-out is the answer to this problem. Seriously, a call from the US to me in Europe costs the caller 2ish cents per minute and I can receive on a foreign SIM for zero.

Skype-out is the answer to this problem. Seriously, a call from the US to me in Europe costs the caller 2ish cents per minute and I can receive on a foreign SIM for zero.

Mr. Fox says it costs him abou .20/min to call my French cellphone via Skype. What is he doing wrong?

Mr. Fox says it costs him abou .20/min to call my French cellphone via Skype. What is he doing wrong?

No, that's right. In almost every country but the US and Canada, calling a cell phone is a good deal more expensive than calling a land line. That $.20/min sounds about right for a French cell phone.

Sorry you're right. Skype out is 2.3 cents to land lines in France but say Verizon (with international long distance package) is 17 cents to cells, actually a bit cheaper than Skype. Apologies for the confusion.

More expensive to call French/German cell phones than landlines.

20 cents to call france mobile is slighly cheaper than Verizon calling
card (from Costco).

Just in case you haven't heard, a company called Free has rocked the world of mobile phone plans, offering the following plan for €19.99/month with no contract:

Unlimited calling to landlines and mobiles in France, the US, and Canada, and to landlines in almost 40 other countries
Unlimited texting
Unlimited Internet via Free hotspots
3G Internet up to 3 Gb (reduced speed beyond)

This plan is available via their website at http://mobile.free.fr (http://mobile.free.fr/).

Other French telecoms have followed suit:

B and You (https://www.b-and-you.fr/)
SOSH (http://www.sosh.fr/)
Red de SFR (http://www.sfr.fr/mobile/series-red-de-sfr.jspe)
Virgin Mobile (http://www.virginmobile.fr/)


NB: These plans are only available via Internet (for the time being), so you'll have to be able to complete the online form and provide a mailing address for the SIM card.