French internet and mobile phone provider?

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lyonsie

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Anybody know anything about (ready to go) internet (dongles) and sim cards in france. Last year was our first, of many I hope, to spend a long period in France for the Summer. We are both bill pay here, and out mobile bills were in the region of €150 - €200 each month, each!!!!! As well as spending €50 per month for wifi on the site we go to, and not a very good signal/speed.
Do any of you out there know of the best package/supplier to suit our needs. We know we will still be paying our mobile bills while not using them (unless home for short periods), but we think getting a ready to go sim is the best option and a ready to go 'dongle'.
I have done a bit of research and found that you can get 'dongles' without contract from €10 up, but cant figure out if they can be topped us during the month if needed. Will have to re-think our contact with 'home'. Use Facebook, Skype and email.... This is the future... Not too many pay phones over there that I could see, will have to look further. We have gotten too used to being available at the touch of a button....
 
You should wait until you're there and check on your mobile which provider has the best coverage. I've had SFR and Orange dongles and it varies where you stay as to the best coverage. It's much more expensive in France than here in my experience though. As you'll have seen yourself wifi is available free in many cafes/hotels etc and it can be best to make the most of the free wifi and save your paid internet for the essentials. There will be various offers depending on when you're there so its hard to be more precise until you decide which coverage is best anyway.

You can certainly top up the dongles, I did it via a payphone as it was cheaper than ringing on the mobile. I had normal prepay dongles without a contract.

Don't know about sim for a mobile as I just used my own mobile sparingly.
 
Less than five minutes ago on "France 24" they were talking about the new Mobile operator in France and a "price war" HERE looks like €16 for a month (for Facebook users) free calls, free sms, free mms, 3GB, NO CONTRACT>
 
Looks interesting, not very good at the french though, so must get someone to translate.... might have to open a bank account over there? Not too clear about 'top-ups' etc... though calls to Ireland are covered in one of the packages, free to landlines and small cost to mobiles.
Def. worth looking at. Thanks.
 
lyonsie said:
Looks interesting, not very good at the french though, so must get someone to translate.... might have to open a bank account over there? Not too clear about 'top-ups' etc... though calls to Ireland are covered in one of the packages, free to landlines and small cost to mobiles.
Def. worth looking at. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Use Google translate. If you have Chrome or Google toolbar also you can translate a webpage at a click of a button.
 
You might find some useful info on one of the ex-pat forums for France.





http://france.angloinfo.com/

I don't know any of these sites personally so can't say which might be better. But expatica is another one and coincidentally had the following
guide to communication services in France link on their first page today.

For what it's worth, even after nearly four years of living in Germany I still use my Irish vodafone pay-as-you-go mobile. I can use free webtext to keep in touch with friends and as signed up for the passport option which means paying the same rates for calls as I would from Ireland. Don't get free vodafone to vodafone calls from abroad but the roaming charge for receiving a call is 79c (for up to 60 minutes talking) so friends in Ireland, especially those who have free vodafone to vodafone, can contact me easily - okay, I bear the cost then but overall it works out very cheaply.

Don't use the internet on my phone though so no idea how to go about that cheaply.
 
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