Glad to hear it - I ordered two of these also. I'll be in Paris, so I'm assuming reception will be solid. And my guess is, with my family, we'll use plenty of data and test out to see if there's really a limit.

Thanks for this info, I decided to order two of these as well. Pretty good deal actually, for unlimited internet. I'll use these in a MiFi so both our iPhone's can use the data, and I've already received a LeFrenchMobile SIM for voice calls for one of the phones.

Sorry for joining the thread late, but thought I'd add my $0.02 -

I used LeFrenchMobile for a data SIM for my iPad back in May. It generally worked okay (only 3G, no 4G) and it absolutely saved the day when I tore a huge gash in my rental car's tire. My phone and my wife's phone (which worked throughout France) couldn't connect to Hertz France's support phone #. After 1+ hours, I had the idea to use Google voice on my iPad to connect my cell phone to Hertz France, and it worked great.

I'd also ordered a free Lebara SIM and received it today. While it's supposed to be mailed within France only, I'd read of others' success in just putting USA by the state.

The SIM was already activated and had the phone number printed on an accompanying sheet. I cut it to micro-SIM size and inserted into my old unlocked iPhone 4 and it picked up an AT&T signal.

I then went through the process on Lebara's site to setup an account, used my credit card to top-up €10; all worked just fine, and my phone was showing the correct French number. I dialed this French number from another phone and it works just fine.

This is a voice-only SIM and actually has reasonable rates to call back to the US while in France (cheaper than calling a French number actually); €0.05/min plus a €0.15 connection fee. This will be a good way for me to call back home during the trip.

Pretty easy and straight-forward process, and I now have at least one known French number available to use as soon as I land.

Does your phone number begin with Country Code 33 and number exchange 06?

Yes it does, looks like it's a Bouygues Telecom number. Why do you ask?

This tells me that you have a telephone number assigned to French cell phones. That's a good thing because you should be able to call both toll free and surcharged numbers (e.g. the number for Air France reservations is simply 3654 and is surcharged at �.34 a minute). Also, if you do something like call for a cab, they like to see a local number on the Caller ID.

Yes, and I believe my LeFrenchMobile SIM card will also give me a similar Bouygues Telecom number when I get to Paris. So I should be all set - I'm feeling pretty comfortable having one number already and being pretty sure the second will work as soon as I make the first call in France.

I should also be receiving the HolidayPhone.com (SFR) unlimited data SIM cards any day now, so I think I have my voice and data needs covered

Got back from my short trip to Paris and wanted to update on my SIM card experience. I already had my Lebara SIM number and topped up online with �10 - used this in an iPhone 4 as backup (and for calls back to the US since that was only �0.05/min). When I landed in Paris, I made a call with the LeFrenchMobile SIM card in my iPhone 5, received an instant text message with my new number, texted back to add the "Special Deal" 50Mb/week data package and was up and running right away.

I used the two HolidayPhone.com data-only SIM's (they used SFR) in my Mifi device for main data access between two iPhone 5's, and everything worked well. Had decent 3G coverage in most of central Paris though it dropped to "2G/E" in parts.

So it all worked great, and it was nice to be able to make/receive calls and use data as needed.

Found out about some other options at another forum. Seems promising, though maybe some FTer going to France could try and report back:


http://shop.sosh.fr/forfaits-mobiles

https://www.b-and-you.fr/checkout/cart/configurateur/

Seems like both offer 2 or 3 GB plans for about 20 Euro. These are on Orange and Boygues networks and are supposedly in response to the Free.fr mobile, which is only available on a contractual basis to those with French bank accounts.

These may not necessarily be available at retail. May have to have them mailed to a French address.

But if a visitor could make one of these work out, then France prepaid data becomes more competitive.

Sosh is contract only, so unless you have a French bank account and sign up for a monthly contract, that won't be an option. Same thing for B&You's plans with the exception of their new prepaid card offer at 4.99� for the SIM including 15 minutes, with recharges available in varying amounts. The downside with that is there's not much data offered, the SIM will be mailed to a French address, and I'm not sure whether a foreign credit card can be used for the online purchase.

Ahh, tant pis.

Quick update on my HolidayPhone SIMs.

Both worked great once I got over an initial hurdle: My MiFi (Huawei E585) needed to be set for APN: websfr.

Frankly, I wish I didn't have to ask about this - not sure why HolidayPhone doesn't tell you up front that this is the proper setting. Maybe most devices auto-configure and mine is just old? In any event, it would have been nice for this to work when I got off the plane, not the next day after I submitted a support ticket and got a (fast) response.

My ZTE MF62 MiFi had the same issue where the auto APN picked up a different setting; I do recall that the pamphlet that came with the HolidayPhone SIMs mentioned the "websfr" setting though, did you check that?

@wco81, I'd mentioned that Sosh (and a similar SFR Red) prepaid option earlier in this thread; great options, but appear to be available only to French residents and designed for recurring monthly use. Would be so good to be able to use those, very inexpensive for plenty of 3G data!

I think the HolidayPhone data SIM's are good for use in MiFi's, and Lebara's free SIM worked great too (plus could activate and charge online here in the US and have the French number known before leaving).

All around though, I liked LeFrenchMobile's offering; not the cheapest, but still pretty reasonable voice and data packages. Good service, all in English, and was reliable.