ssander

I'll be using my iPhone in France.

If I enter the numbers with the zero in parentheses, will my iPhone know whether to include the zero or not depending on the country of the SIM?

I may have a UK SIM and/or a French SIM.

I would hope that I can enter numbers +33 (0)N NN NN NN NN and have my iPhone correctly determine whether the optional zero must be dialed depending on whether the UK or French SIM is installed (thus tagging the phone with either a UK or French number).

Wondering why I need both SIMs? I have UK SIMs that work well in France, my old Lebara SIMs are obsolete, and I may not be able to get new ones in time (if at all...my attempt to have them sent to the US seems to have failed this time around).

ssander

Andrew

Drop the zero when you are calling "internationally" (adding a country code) unless you call Italy - then keep the zero:

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-ti...call-uk-europe

If you are calling the UK from the UK, keep the zero; if you are calling France from the UK, add the country code and drop the zero.

Whether you need a SIM in both countries probably depends how much local calling you need to do in each country. When I bought my Dutch Vodafone SIM on eBay and used it in France, Italy, and Slovenia, I only wanted data - didn't need to make local calls. It would have been expensive for me to call France, Italy, or Slovenia while I was in those countries, because my Dutch SIM allowed me to call only the Netherlands without extra roaming costs.

You can use your UK SIM in France and just use something like Skype to make calls to France, if that's cheaper than using the UK SIM, because the UK SIM should have free data roaming in France. Or...buy another SIM in France. Whichever is easier for you.

rs899

Which UK SIM do you have?

hetismij2

I'm not sure that is correct Andrew. I think you are allowed to call Slovenia in Slovenia with your Dutch Sim, but not Slovenia from the Netherlands with it at no extra charge.
All roaming costs, so for calls as well as data have been abolished.

Anyway OP the zero is dialled if you are in the country of the phone number. If you are calling from another country you use the country code and drop the zero.
As mentioned above however if you have a UK sim and are calling France from the UK you will be charged extra for the call. If you have a UK sim and call the UK from France you won't be charged extra.

If you are saving numbers in your phone it's easiest to save them as +country code number, so for the Netherlands it would store as +31 123456789. I store all my phone numbers in that way on my mobile.

Cowboy1968

You can store and dial phone numbers in the "international" format regardless of which SIM card you use and regardless of your location.

If you want to call, for example, the Hotel Ritz in Paris, you can save the number as
+33 1 43 16 30 30
to your iPhone.

The phone will "know" which rate to apply - so it won't cost more to use the international prefix.
And you don't have to waste a thought about whether to dial or not the "0".

ssander

Thanks all...but I apparently did not make my question clear.

I am aware of the <strong>dialing</strong> rules:
-- Use 0 for <strong>manual</strong> dialing France-to-France calls.
-- Drop zero for <strong>manual</strong> calling France numbers from outside France.

I was referring to entering +33 (0)N NN NN NN NN in my <strong>contacts</strong> for hotels, air, sights, likely-used restaurants, etc., before traveling, and having the phone itself (i.e., the SIM) know whether to use the zero or not when I initiate the call from <strong>contacts</strong>. (Eliminate dialing mistakes when manually dialing.)

Call rates are irrelevant to me, because we don't use our phones much (used about 5GBP in Ireland with our UK SIMs this spring for our 9 day trip.) RS899...our UK SIMs are GiffGaff, and they have worked very well for us in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland.

Hope this clarifies the question.

Thanks.
ssander

Cowboy1968

<i>I am aware of the dialing rules:
-- Use 0 for manual dialing France-to-France calls.
-- Drop zero for manual calling France numbers from outside France.<i>

Wrong.

The GSM network allows this as a convenience for national calling, but it's not necessary.

Try this:
Make a new entry for whatever restaurant or hotel with iPhone Contacts.
When you get to the point that you need to enter the phone number, use the international format.
in your example: +33 1 42 43 44 45 or +44 20 72 87 88 89 or +1 212 555 1122
Save contact.

Regardless of what SIM card you will put into that phone during your trip, and regardless where you are you simply pull up that contact when you need it and touch that number on your screen.

Neither your phone nor any SIM card does require any extra action from your side if you saved every contact with the number in the full international format.

Even when you stand in front of your hotel in Paris and want to call it, you go to your iPhone Contacts, pull up the entry, touch the "international" phone number +33 1 etc. and by the magic of the GSM network the phone at the reception will ring.

Cowboy1968

oops. wrong editing in Italics. sorry.

ssander

Cowby...thanks so much...you have cleared it up...I think I just use the standard Intl format without the (0) and the phone figures it out regardless of the SIM.

Right?

This makes it easy.

SS

Cowboy1968

Correct.

Happy travels!