Sim for France

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good 4G prepaid sim for France right now ?
Will be spending a week there, I understand there is excellent 4G coverage in the area from various providers.
I have a good unlocked portable device which would give service to everything - ipad, laptop, mobile phone.
Just looking for any solid info on specific Sims. Don't really want to spend too much on this.

Depending when you are going a UK Sim might be able to roam-free in France. My Vodafone contract Sim starts free roam in Europe on 11th June.

A UK SIM could actually give a better service as I believe they can roam to any network whereas a France bought SIM would only be able to use the mobile provider it was bought from.

Same when europeans come here now - they will get a much better network service as they can roam to any network - whichever is the strongest.

Yes, that is a good point. Maybe I should investigate getting a French SIM for use in the UK!

Whilst somewhat true a UK sim will not work on absolutely every network abroad.

Networks have roaming partners, EE has two partners in France when I last checked (a year ago).
US coverage wise you cannot use version on EE, only AT&T and T mobile.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 23-May-17 11:36:19)

I used my Three UK SIM which includes Europe coverage - have a look.

http://www.three.co.uk/feel-at-home/

The problem with that is that you can only be roaming for a certain amount of time (I vaguely think it might be a month but I could be wrong).

Very good point ian72, thanks.
My contract is with Tmobile / EE , but I usually buy Vodafone data sims for my mobile router, that gets better 4G around here.
I'll drop in to both shops locally on the weekend and check them out.

Leaving next week and will be back just before then - coming back to get in my vote on the 8th

In reply to a post by ian72:

The problem with that is that you can only be roaming for a certain amount of time (I vaguely think it might be a month but I could be wrong).

For Three it is 2 months and they "may" suspend the inclusive offering.

Matt

So what UK network are you on?

Three for Business and Vodafone personally.

Matt

Vodafone EuroTraveller is £3 a day to use your UK allowance of calls., texts and data.

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/explore/costs/travelling-...

May be easier than finding a local SIM?

Make sure you have roaming enabled as well.

In reply to a post by locutus:

Vodafone EuroTraveller is £3 a day to use your UK allowance of calls., texts and data.

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/explore/costs/travelling-...

Until June 2017 after which such roaming charges will be illegal in the EU. Your operator will only be able to charge at your domestic tariff. Details at http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/telec...

I was looking at anywheresim for some colleagues at work. Tested it out for a short while and it worked fine although in the end we didn't need it. Vodafone "fixed" signal issues in our business park.

Del

Yes, but the OP is going away next week.

In reply to a post by locutus:

Yes, but the OP is going away next week.

As June begins next week and depending on the dates of the trip, the OP may have to pay the roaming charges at the start of his trip but may be able to avoid them later on. Hope it's a good heads-up for him/her.

The OP is back by the 8th June, before Vodafone add Global Roaming for all existing pay monthly customers, from 11th June. This was all covered up thread.

In reply to a post by locutus:

The OP is back by the 8th June, before Vodafone add Global Roaming for all existing pay monthly customers, from 11th June. This was all covered up thread.

Apologies for not doing my homework. Perhaps I should have said "Hope it's a good heads-up for him/her or any other reader planning to go to an EU country soon."

But you replied to Uno rather than the OP. The OP stated they have an EE sim - EE already allow you to use all your allowances whilst roaming at no charge. Uno may well not be going abroad until after the new roaming kicks in on Voda.

That's good to know about. Haven't checked out the costs yet though. Thanks

A Three PAYG sim. Put £10 on it and convert to an add on. You then get 1GB data, 100 minutes and 3000 text messages. Lasts a month. Just come back from France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, coverage was great.

Edited by Discus (Wed 24-May-17 20:19:00)

I came back from France yesterday. Bought a 3 PAYG sim before I went - completely useless! (i'm on O2 here which is also a nightmare for travel)

3 limit the sim to 3g and won't allow tethering - even a VPN won't get round those locks as it uses location services to track where you are. This resulted in my wife and I being on identical phones, sat next to each other and she was getting a 4G signal (via Vodafone) fast as you liek and I could barely open web pages.

There is an Orange France Holiday sim that seems to fit the bill until the 15th of June when hopefully all of this nonsense won't matter - not sure if you have to buy it there or can pre-Oder.

In reply to a post by ainsley001:

3 limit the sim to 3g and won't allow tethering -

Not sure that is right about France, as I have had 4G in France (Dunkirk), Belgium, Holland, Germany and Spain with a 3 PAYG sim.

That said, I can't even get 4G on the sim in parts of the UK, (nor can I with my Vodafone), so surely it depends on the signal quality in the locality?

I bought a 3 PAYG Sim today in a newsagent. Once I had it up and running but zero balance I decided to register on their site rather than just topup online anonymously. So I had a look around their website at the same time. I found this while I was doing that.

On our Essential Plans, you can�t use your inclusive data allowance to create a personal hotspot (this is where you share your phone�s internet with other devices such as tablets and laptops). If you want to do this, you can buy an Add-Personal Hotspot Add-on when needed of 1GB, 3GB or 6GB.

Re 4G, as others have said it depends on signal strength. Inside my house or even most of the time in the garden I can only connect on 3G, though it does detect a 4G signal. Half a mile away it happily picks up 4G.

Update on this thread.
Firstly many thanks to all who contributed to the thread, very informative, and I appreciated all the info and experiences of others.
What I ended up doing :
1. Bought a Vodafone PAYG sim for £10, the Big Value Bundle. 100 mins, 100 texts, 500MB, 30 days, valid Europe Zone. I put this in my smartphone and ended up this was what I used the whole time I was in France. Coverage was excellent, 4G.

2. I had originally bought a 3 PAYG data sim. Installed this into my mobile router. This did work well. However I had problems with Zoiper running on my phone while the phone connected by wifi to this router. I just didn't have enough spare time while over there to try lots of different setups.

Given the EU Roaming changes coming in today, this is probably not of much use to anyone. But appreciate the advices.

In reply to a post by clyde123:

Given the EU Roaming changes coming in today, this is probably not of much use to anyone. But appreciate the advices.

Which may revert come April 2019.

In reply to a post by ian72:

For Three it is 2 months and they "may" suspend the inclusive offering.

I've had a 3 PAYG sim here in the US with me for >5 years with limited issues. Twice they have suspended my service abroad - once with notice, the second without.

Both times the 'ban' was simply overcome by ordering a replacement SIM. It's hilarious how amateur they are at implementing the ban.

Edited by toph3r (Tue 04-Jul-17 22:29:39)

Hi Chris, that's a good way to get around the ban, but there is still the logistical problem of actually receiving a new sim card while abroad. How do you do that and what sort of delay does it entail?

Simply have it sent to an associate in the UK, then ask them to ship it to you wherever you are.

So is the delay days, weeks or months and how many?

I can't answer that can I? You would need to ask the person in the UK sending you the SIM.

Does that make sense to you? I do hope so.

Edited by toph3r (Wed 05-Jul-17 16:10:35)

So the delay is all down to your proxy in the UK? I can't believe that, I would imagine with warning their delay would be same day or max 2 days. What is more important is how long the actual delivery takes to a) get from 3 to your proxy and b) from your proxy to the states. As you claim to have done it, you should be able to say how long it took.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

So the delay is all down to your proxy in the UK? I can't believe that, I would imagine with warning their delay would be same day or max 2 days.

Have you even read this sentence back to yourself? It is undecipherable.

What is more important is how long the actual delivery takes to a) get from 3 to your proxy and b) from your proxy to the states. As you claim to have done it, you should be able to say how long it took.

Again, this is all completely irrelevant. You make the decisions on when you wish the sim card to reach you abroad. You realise UPS / Fedex have different options available based on delivery times? Probably not.

My sim through standard international mail took no more than a week to reach me.

Which is of limited use if you're on a 2 week holiday abroad.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Which is of limited use if you're on a 2 week holiday abroad.

I'm sure it would be; good job then that 3 don't bar SIM cards for being abroad for a fortnight isn't it?

Do try and keep up at the back, hard as it is i'm sure.

unless it has changed you can use 3 sim for 2 months for every 12 months of the year (PAYG 3 might Bar the sim card when your buy the second AYCE addon but as you can Stack addons on 3 you just buy 2 AYCE addons before you go as they auto start when they run out)

i believe this is the same now for all networks that have EU roaming (until we leave the EU then this might get receded), that are good things for leaving the EU and bad things as well (still think it screw us over for years leaving or for ever, i dont know be interesting how it all goes really)

In reply to a post by leexgx:

unless it has changed you can use 3 sim for 2 months for every 12 months of the year (PAYG 3 might Bar the sim card when your buy the second AYCE addon but as you can Stack addons on 3 you just buy 2 AYCE addons before you go as they auto start when they run out)

FWIW, I can usually go a year before they care. I don't use the line for anything other than to receive text messages for 2FA.

In reply to a post by leexgx:

unless it has changed you can use 3 sim for 2 months for every 12 months of the year (PAYG 3 might Bar the sim card when your buy the second AYCE addon but as you can Stack addons on 3 you just buy 2 AYCE addons before you go as they auto start when they run out)

That's a good idea