Sue4

I'm trying to figure out best way to use my iPhone for 2 weeks in Paris in October.
Has anyone used this service? I'll have wifi at the hotel, but who knows how reliable it'll be. Mainly I want service for my iPhone while I'm out and about - get uber, use google maps, etc. in Paris and some possible day trips. This looks kind of interesting on their website, Travel-WiFi.com. They have several different plans, starting at about 5 euros/day (€50 for 10 days, 5 gb total).My use would probably be minimal as I'll have just the phone and iPad for use at hotel. I won't want to stream videos or anything like that.

Admittedly, I'm pretty cellphone illiterate, as I'm from the "landline" generation, and hate cellphones generally! But I DO want to be able to use it on this trip, especially for data if not much for phone calls.
I have Verizon service in the US, and they have a travel plan for $10/day in Europe and that would probably be the easiest solution for me - but seems a little steep. Another alternative would be to drop Verizon temporarily (I'm on one daughters plan, no contract) and have other daughter put me on her T-mobile plan, which she has offered to do, as she has an extra line - since T-Mobile has no extra charge for overseas. Cost effective, but more trouble!

Anyway, I'd appreciate any thoughts on this, or if any of you have used that Travel-WiFi.com device. Or how does T-Mobile work in Paris?

StCirq

You don't need it. There's WIFI everywhre in Paris. Macdonalds, cafés, museums, parks, you name it. And why would you question the reliability of your hotel's WIFI? I've never been let down in that respect.

Hobbert

I was in Paris this summer and wifi really is everywhere. I didn't have any issue without it. One of the women in my group had T-Mobile and it seemed to work just fine for her, so if you really prefer to have wifi, I'd just switch now. Especially if the plan is cheaper than what you currently have.

pariswat

If you have a creditcard, just find a free.fr point, insert your card, give an email address and pay 39,99€.
You'll get a simcard that you can reuse later and 5 Go of data + calls.
If you want to reuse the card later, you only pay 29,99€.

I'm quite illiterate myself but could use it very easily.
+ you can use it as a mobile hotspot for your friends.

Sue4

Glad to hear that, StCirq. As far as the hotel's wifi, I question it because of some trip advisor reviews - when it didn't work well (or at all in certain rooms). It all depends, I suppose. Can be frustrating, though, but not terribly important. However, my main concern is being able to get through to Uber when I'm out and too exhausted to do the Metro stairs or stand on the bus! And don't want, or can't find, a taxi. I'm way up in age and tire a lot easier than I used to. Anyway, on this trip I want to be covered.

Sue4

Hobbert, nice to know your friends T-mobile worked well, in case I do that. Not sure I should do that just for the sake of a 2-week trip, though, since I'm happy enough with Verizon at home.

And pariswat, that's very interesting. Something I didn't know about. But setting up the sim card in my phone - I don't know!

greg

>>> alternative would be to drop Verizon temporarily (I'm on one daughters plan, no contract) and have other daughter put me on her T-mobile plan,

There is no need to drop Verizon temporarily. Would it not incur activation fee when you want to return? You can have t-mobile and Verizon at the same time. Many people fail to grasp this concept. If Verizon + French/Italian/German/Spanish SIM is acceptable, why isn't Verizon + t-mobile also acceptable?

If your t-mobile daughter has a family plan already, 3rd and later additional line is $10/month if on the lowest data plan, no contract if on Simple Choice plan. Add $20 for SIM and you have unlimited free SMS, cheap voice, and no cost data roaming you can use in multiple countries.

drchris

Your iPhone should be unlocked if it's a newer version. If not, ask your carrier if they will unlock it. When we arrived in Paris, we bought an Otange SIM card with 10 gab of data good for 30 days for $30 or $40. We were driving around France and wanted to be able to use it in places that didn't have good WIFi although it was generally excellent throughout the country. You should have good WiFi connectivity in Paris but if not the plan I described was useful.

Sue4

My phone is an iPhone 6, and my daughter (the one with Verizon) says it's unlocked. So in that case I guess I could use a French SIM. I read someplace, I think on here, that sometimes it's difficult to set up a new SIM.

Greg, your idea sounds excellent, if in fact I could have both Verizon and T-Mobile at the same time. My T-Mobile daughter does have the Simple Choice family plan, but probably not lowest data plan, as her kids use a lot of that I'm sure. I'll check with her about it. Regardless, that sounds like the most cost effective way to do it.
Verizon is for sure the most expensive at $10/day. I'll be gone 16 days so that might be kind of silly, especially when I won't be using it much for calls, and can get WiFi easily in Paris.

I appreciate the input you all have given me.

Andrew

T-Mobile data is unlimited when roaming internationally, no matter how much data your/her plan has. But it is "throttled" to 2G speeds when roaming, which I've finally figured out means they slow it down only when you are using a lot of data in a short time (like streaming a video, which will probably be awful using T-Mobile in Paris).

I've used T-Mobile on my last three trips to Europe, including this recent May-June. My Android phone connected at 4GLTE speeds in almost every country and didn't seem slow until I tried streaming video due to the 2G speed limitation. Otherwise, it was extremely fast and useful.

On my trip, I was in six countries in 2.5 weeks, so having my phone automatically work as soon as a plane landed or my bus or train crossed a border was quite helpful. (Also, i used it on the ferry between Helsinki and St. Petersburg, where the cell towers bounced back and forth between Finland and Russia for a while.) For this kind of trip, T-Mobile made a lot of sense. But if I were going to just one country for two weeks, I'd probably just buy a local SIM.

Andrew

Also, no matter what phone scenario you wind up using, if you want to make free phone calls home to the US while in France, install the Google Hangouts Dialer app on your phone - it lets you make free calls to the US, even to landlines, on WiFi or mobile data (I used it even with T-Mobile data on my last trip). I used this quite a lot on my recent trip to call family and friends in free time.

StCirq

<<I read someplace, I think on here, that sometimes it's difficult to set up a new SIM.>>

Difficult? No. You open up your phone. (take the back off, expose the battery and SIM card slot). You take out your American SIM card. You put your French SIM in the same slot. You visit the store of the French provider (Orange, SFR, whatever). You give them your passport. They register you and give you a French telephone number. You're set to go, and you've had a very typical French experience. Or, if you speak French you do it all by phone.

If that seems too complicated, just use T-Mobile.

I find Trip Advisor's advice to be close to useless. Loads of people who don't know what they're talking about and all of them allowed to post their information.

Andrew

Difficultly getting a SIM to work probabl depends in part on your phone. Last year, I bought SIM cards in Montenegro and Bosnia for my Android, and in both cases, data did not automatically work. (Voice calls were pretty easy to get working.) The Montenegro SIM was bought from a T-Mobile store, and it took the T-Mobile agent about 10 minutes just to get the APN set properly to use data. I wouldn't have figured it out in a short time. In Bosnia, I bought the SIM from a small shop and he had no idea how to make data work; I had to go to an official store in Sarajevo of the SIM manufacturer (like a T-Mobile store) to get them to make data work.

Now I understand more about how to set an APN, which is like a data gateway - but I wouldn't expect the average phone user to be able to do that. That was an older Android phone. I assume it would be easier, maybe automatic, on my new one. And I expect it would be easier on a newer iPhone.

The point it - yes, it CAN be confusing to get a SIM to work, just because it has never been confusing for YOU. Please don't disparage the various reports of people having trouble just because you didn't. I'm not exactly a tech novice, and at the time, I had no idea how to do this, either.

Christina

Wifi doesn't work very well in probably about half the hotels I stay at that say they have it, so questioning it seems normal to me. It often isn't very good.

I wouldn't worry about it so much as you can easily get by without Wifi. I hope you aren't traveling around Paris without a real map of some kind, you shouldn't need anything else, and I would just research day trips ahead of time to know logistics. Hotels usually have free maps, anyway. I carry a very small pocket size Plan de Paris (not the bigger ones which can be bulky), and you can get a very small card of the metro line map from a clerk in a metro station.

Whathello

Sure.
Opening a cellphone is difficult.
With a iPhone you even need a small pin.
Then you locate the sim card.
And exchange it with the one you just bought.
Took me 2 min - glad to realize I could have been a rocket engineer.
StCirq you don't even need to go to orange and show passport (which failed for us wit orange with sfr etc.)
I found a machine in a press seller. Introduced my credit card. Selected the size of the chip - best to look before. Pay. Give an email address.
Sooooo complicated.
But ok if StCirq gives good advice and provide a solution some must criticize it.
Pfffff.

yestravel

I understand your concerns. Not being completely comfortable with cell phones and there ins &outs is understanable.
We switched to TMobile after years with AT&T. Love the free international roaming. It's such a pleasure not to have to deal with getting a SIM card everywhere we travel. I have to say in my experience with SIM cards is sometimes it's easy peasy and other times there seems to be glitches which you can figure out by playing around with the phone but it is a PIA. ITs seamless with TMobil and no cost beyond your monthly charge.

As far as wifi availability in hotels we have had issues with poor or non existent wifi in a hotel that states it has free wifi. Can depend upon where you are located in the hotel sometimes. Our experience with our many trips to Paris have been generally decent wifi where we stay and walking around the city. However the old thick walls sometimes makes the wifi not as fast as one would like.

My advice is would be to go on your daughter's TMobil for the time on your trip.

Have a great time!

Sue4

Andrew, your experiences with the SIM are similiar to what I've read about, and I wouldn't want to get into a scenario like that! Especially for a short trip. But your T-mobile experience is encouraging. I'm definitely leaning in that direction. Thanks!

And Christina, agreed about hotel WiFi. Nothing to do with technology is set in stone, and perfect all the time. Not even my hi speed AT&T broadband at home - I just had some problems getting on here. And yes, I would never venture out in Paris without my pocket-fitting maps, including Metro and Bus. But I DO want my phone to reach Uber just in case! However, since I have enjoyed numerous trips to France (including many solo driving trips) in the past with no cellphone, iPad, or GPS, only lots of great maps, I'm sure this trip will be fine. I love maps! I don't think my 20-something grandchildren even know what a paper map is. Or for that matter, a landline (but I digress).

But it's fun planning this trip, and I do appreciate the responses.

Andrew

Sue, I'm guessing with an iPhone you would have little trouble using a local SIM. I was merely pointing out that some people DO have issues with local SIM cards in their phones, and it's not because the people using their phones are stupid. Lots of people read these threads for information, not just the original poster.

On my last trip, I used Google Maps to navigate (on foot and public transportation) extensively for the first time - and I think I will never go back to a paper map. Google Maps could tell me which bus or train to take anywhere, so I didn't have to mess with bus schedules, either. (Paris is one thing, but think about navigating around St. Petersburg when you can't even read the Cyrillic alphabet, let alone try to figure out a bus schedule!) My Android phone has become an essential travel tool. I really won't miss having to navigate via paper maps - I have done it many times over the years but often found it frustrating and time-consuming.

Sue4

Yestravel, I like your advice and understanding. Thanks!

Sue4

Andrew, I agree with you totally about Google Maps! That's why I started this thread, as I really do want that capability on this trip. And I love Streetview!