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Prepaid SIM - France

Prepaid SIM - France

Old Nov 5, 2015, 3:54 pm
  #151  
 
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Could I get a three SIM, top up with £10 and then get 1gb of data, since their 321 plan charges 1p/mb (1,000 x 1p = £10, 1,000 x 1mb = 1gb)? Or somewhat less than 1gb plus a few phone calls?
http://www.three.co.uk/Store/SIM/Pay_As_You_Go

This would be better for me than the All in One £10 add-on, since I likely won't text or make many phone calls, but may use more than 500mb of data.

Could I then use it in France with their free roaming?
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Old Nov 9, 2015, 10:15 pm
  #152  
 
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Originally Posted by stimpy
Yes, click on the link I gave two posts above yours.
That's great, and 25€ for 3 gigs is not bad for a no committment deal.
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Old Nov 10, 2015, 7:09 pm
  #153  
 
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Originally Posted by richarddd
Could I get a three SIM, top up with £10 and then get 1gb of data, since their 321 plan charges 1p/mb (1,000 x 1p = £10, 1,000 x 1mb = 1gb)? Or somewhat less than 1gb plus a few phone calls?
http://www.three.co.uk/Store/SIM/Pay_As_You_Go

This would be better for me than the All in One £10 add-on, since I likely won't text or make many phone calls, but may use more than 500mb of data.

Could I then use it in France with their free roaming?
It seems pay as you go data is 10p per mb in France, 10x the UK cost. http://www.three.co.uk/Support/Roami...=1214306374696

This makes Pay As You Go - All in One £10 the better course (http://store.three.co.uk/view/searchSimOnly?tariff=115) - you get 500mb to use in UK and France, or Pay As You Go - All in One £20 gets you "unlimited" data http://store.three.co.uk/view/searchSimOnly?tariff=112
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Old Nov 11, 2015, 1:28 am
  #154  
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Originally Posted by richarddd
It seems pay as you go data is 10p per mb in France,
What makes you say that? Did you see the post right above yours? You are an order of magnitude off it seems. Maybe you should at orange.fr

I may not be good at math, but I don't think €25 for 3GB equals 10p per mb.
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Old Nov 11, 2015, 5:31 am
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Originally Posted by stimpy
What makes you say that? Did you see the post right above yours? You are an order of magnitude off it seems. Maybe you should at orange.fr

I may not be good at math, but I don't think €25 for 3GB equals 10p per mb.
Did you look at my post that I quoted and the link I posted (you may have to specify France and paygo)? In the first post, I suggest you can get 1gb for £10 in the UK and France using Three's 3-2-1 plan. It's true in the UK (1p / mb) but not France (see the link). If you have the 3-2-1 plan it certainly looks like 10p in France. If you get an add-on allowance, you get that allowance.
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Old Nov 11, 2015, 9:11 am
  #156  
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Originally Posted by richarddd
Did you look at my post that I quoted and the link I posted (you may have to specify France and paygo)? In the first post, I suggest you can get 1gb for £10 in the UK and France using Three's 3-2-1 plan. It's true in the UK (1p / mb) but not France (see the link). If you have the 3-2-1 plan it certainly looks like 10p in France. If you get an add-on allowance, you get that allowance.
I'm confused for sure. Your posts quote links to 3 which is not a French operator. I quoted links from Orange which is a French operator that has pricing of less than 10p per MB. It obviously makes sense to buy a SIM from a French operator if you plan to spend a lot of time in France. If however you want to spend a lot of time in the UK and visit France for a bit, then perhaps the offer from 3 is a good choice.

After 2017 then maybe all this advice will change. We'll see.
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Old Nov 11, 2015, 11:14 am
  #157  
 
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Originally Posted by stimpy
I'm confused for sure. Your posts quote links to 3 which is not a French operator. I quoted links from Orange which is a French operator that has pricing of less than 10p per MB. It obviously makes sense to buy a SIM from a French operator if you plan to spend a lot of time in France. If however you want to spend a lot of time in the UK and visit France for a bit, then perhaps the offer from 3 is a good choice.

After 2017 then maybe all this advice will change. We'll see.
Three is a UK operator which offers low cost roaming in France. We're planning on a few days in the UK and a few days in France and don't need anywhere close to 3gb. Three also offers a 500mb add-on for £5 that can be used in France. For £10 I can get 500mb in the UK (at 1p/mb) and 500mb in France (the add-on). That should be more than enough data and save the effort of shopping in France.
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Old Nov 16, 2015, 8:09 am
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Originally Posted by stimpy
I'm confused for sure. Your posts quote links to 3 which is not a French operator. I quoted links from Orange which is a French operator that has pricing of less than 10p per MB. It obviously makes sense to buy a SIM from a French operator if you plan to spend a lot of time in France. If however you want to spend a lot of time in the UK and visit France for a bit, then perhaps the offer from 3 is a good choice.

After 2017 then maybe all this advice will change. We'll see.
Sorry Stimpy what Richard says is correct. Things have changed before 2017, and in a good way. And not just for France. You might want to take a look at 3 website. Others will surely be forced to follow shortly.
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Old Nov 16, 2015, 9:41 am
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@h15t0r1an, am I interpreting Three's website correctly that I could do this:

Buy a SIM and a £10 credit and use it in the UK at 3-2-1 rates. Just before going to France, I could buy a 500mb add-on for £5 and use it for data in France, plus calls and texts at roaming rates (obviously provided I don't use more than a total of £10). If I just use data, I could use a total of 1,000mb (500mb in the UK at 1p/mb plus the 500mb add-on in the UK and France).
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Old Nov 16, 2015, 10:54 am
  #160  
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Originally Posted by stimpy
I'm confused for sure. Your posts quote links to 3 which is not a French operator. I quoted links from Orange which is a French operator that has pricing of less than 10p per MB. It obviously makes sense to buy a SIM from a French operator if you plan to spend a lot of time in France. If however you want to spend a lot of time in the UK and visit France for a bit, then perhaps the offer from 3 is a good choice.

After 2017 then maybe all this advice will change. We'll see.
Yeah but how good are the roaming networks?

And how does the 3 network in the UK compare to other UK networks, in coverage and price?
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Old Nov 16, 2015, 1:12 pm
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Originally Posted by wco81
Yeah but how good are the roaming networks?
I have unlimited roaming in Europe and the French overseas departments so it's great for me.

And how does the 3 network in the UK compare to other UK networks, in coverage and price?
That question would best be asked in the UK forum IMHO.
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Old Nov 23, 2015, 7:09 am
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Originally Posted by wco81
Yeah but how good are the roaming networks?

And how does the 3 network in the UK compare to other UK networks, in coverage and price?
3 All I can say is that in the suburbs of a major metropolitan area as soon as I dropped Vodafone and signed up with Three, the bars on my phone went from 4 to 5 bars coverage permanently. There's nothing wrong with 4 bars but 5 bars means a really strong signal. So Three network in the UK has been excellent for me. Having said that I've found a couple of spots in London and 1 near to London recently when signal was weaker. I understand that's due to their popularity and rate of expansion.
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Old Nov 23, 2015, 7:25 am
  #163  
 
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Originally Posted by richarddd
@h15t0r1an, am I interpreting Three's website correctly that I could do this:

Buy a SIM and a £10 credit and use it in the UK at 3-2-1 rates. Just before going to France, I could buy a 500mb add-on for £5 and use it for data in France, plus calls and texts at roaming rates (obviously provided I don't use more than a total of £10). If I just use data, I could use a total of 1,000mb (500mb in the UK at 1p/mb plus the 500mb add-on in the UK and France).
If you buy the add-on you will not pay roaming rates for calls back to the UK. Note that if you make calls that are not back to your 'home' country such as a local call in France to France or in Austria to Austria, you will pay roaming rates and not the Feel at Home rate. This is not heavily covered in Three's marketing.

I can't speak for data on phones as I keep my data contracts separate. You will have to read the offer yourself for that. Data will definitely be at UK rates even used in France on French websites if you use or buy it as per the terms. Three's only add-ons needed are for voice.

Otherwise I'd suggest just pick up a Lebara PAYG SIM when you arrive, newspaper/magazine shops have them and sometimes supermarkets. They give useful data amounts free with topups that you get very reasonable rates for calls on also.

There are considerably better options available in France. But you would need to be able to pay from French sources for those. So they are not worth it for short trips. All operators in the EU will have to make roaming in Europe same price as the country where the SIM is based, by a date in 2017. So you only need to worry about 2016 really. Market forces should bring rates closer across countries for roaming use in the EU by a date in 2017.

Beware that operators now seem to be bringing in small print limiting the number of roaming days per year. I think this is to try to limit the effects of the 2017 legislation. The examples I have seen in two countries from 2 different networks limit roaming at 'home' rates to only 35 days per year. So you should be fine for shorter trips. Not that the operators are colluding on the magic number of 35 days per year - perish the thought! :-)

Last edited by h15t0r1an; Nov 23, 2015 at 7:33 am
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Old Nov 23, 2015, 11:08 pm
  #164  
 
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Originally Posted by h15t0r1an
There are considerably better options available in France. But you would need to be able to pay from French sources for those. So they are not worth it for short trips.
Not always. The last time I went to France I asked the store staff at an SFR shop in Paris why prices they wanted to charge me were so much higher than I found on their website, and why they were telling me there was no cheap EU roaming option on their plans. One "demande d'abonnement" and photocopy of my passport later I found myself signed up to a monthly plan with SFR. Cancelling that one was not fun.
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Old Nov 24, 2015, 4:46 am
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Originally Posted by h15t0r1an
<>
I can't speak for data on phones as I keep my data contracts separate. You will have to read the offer yourself for that. Data will definitely be at UK rates even used in France on French websites if you use or buy it as per the terms. Three's only add-ons needed are for voice.<>
As I read Three's website, under the basic 3-2-1 plan, data is 1p/mb in the UK and 10p/mb in France, which is not "at UK rates even used in France". However, there's an add-on that gives you 500mb for £5 (1p/mb), even in France. See the links I posted.

Am I misreading?
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