Help with data plan
 

Im going to spend a week in Paris and I was thinking in getting a prepaid Sim Card, just for data, which company would be the best company? Thx

Best for coverage? I think they're about the same. Get ready for 3G most of the time, unless things have improved since June.

Best for price-Not sure but both Orange and SFR have plans for visitors.

Best to go to: If you hit a store first thing, either Orange or SFR can get you set-up. Later in the day (11 am or later), it seems every Orange store is packed with long waiting lines, so I would use SFR.

Thx a lot !!

I don´t think that any of the 4 mobile phone companies offer 4G/LTE service for prepaid customers; something you should ask about.

The low cost option might be Lycamobile which uses the Bouygues network. Their SIMs are available at tabacs and magazine stores such as Relay. European mobile phone operators use 900/2100MHz for 3G transmissions so check that your phone can receive 2100MHz (any quad band phone will have 900).

The #1 problem with reception is improperly configured APNs. They´re easy to set up and are provider specific. A quick search can tell you the correct settings and how to change them if needed.

I used LeFrenchMobile and it worked out great. Very easy to configure (only thing I had to do was add "mobiledata" to the APN entry) and worked as well as any other roaming option I've used. I think it uses Telstra's network if I recall correctly? I think that's what the network indicator said.

Topping off is easily done from your phone. Works for two weeks if you don't register it, much longer if you do. Initial card is 19 euros with 1 gig of data; 3 gig to-off is just 38 euros. The only weird thing is that you can't add to that 1 gig until it's used up.

3G, not 4 or LTE, and in rural areas, sometimes drops to EDGE. That's the norm for most/all networks, but coverage has been improving greatly over the years. I'll definitely be using them in the future.

Hope this helps-

Hi,

Just want to check, if I traveling to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, does it mean I need to get 3 SIM card, each for each country, or there is some company that can cover these 3 countries without data roaming.

Curiously, Amsterdam (Netherlands) coverage is excluded from many EU-coverage SIM cards. France and Belgium, no problem, and you can get some fairly-high-priced (but convenient) works-anywhere SIMs that would do the trick. Maybe someone here knows of something reasonable for France/Belgium/Netherlands?

Lebara offers a product that claims 42 countries, but looks like you have to dig a bit to find out what they are. 1 Gig for 30 Euros. Have not used Lebara myself.

The countries are:
Any idea how I buy this in the US (or in Paris proper or CDG)? I will be headed to Paris & Iceland for 10 days in November and would love to get this sorted before I leave, or at least have a plan to do so.

You might want to check out this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...paid-sims.html

When I wanted one SIM card for multiple countries last year, I used Piranha Mobile. I mainly needed data and it worked well in Hungary, Austria and Czech Republic; I plan on using it in France later this year.

There is extensive discussion of the available options in the Travel Technology forum: