French Cell Phone
 

The French owner of the apartement we will be staying in in Paris, has offered us the use of her French cell phone. She _thinks_ that the cheapest card is 15 euros. We would pick the phone up here, and then return it when we come home.

Does anyone know if that is the cheapest cell card and how many minutes, are on it?

We will have a regular phone where we are staying. We generally buy a phone card for pay phones, fairly cheap, maybe 7.50 euros. We will only use the cell or phone card maybe 8 or 9 times max. We just use it when we are out and about and want to make dinner reservations for that night, rather than returning home to call. I'm never sure of the exact amount, but I know that we have never used up a card yet.

If the cell card is cheaper, than we just might borrow the phone and take it with us.

I know that we would never make 15 euros worth of calls, but it might be worth it for the convenience. It may come to at least l.5 euro per call - no bargain.

I would do it for the convenience, no question. I had one from my rental in Italy. If it saves you a few hours of being lost or getting a taxi or reservation, how much is that worth to you?

If you don't use the entire card perhaps you could share it with a friend traveling soon.

I think th ecost and the charge depend on the service the owner has. We use a Mobicarte from France Telecom (Orange) and depending on the service you can get 10 or 15 euro cards. These give you a limited number of days to use them, and so you couldnt pass it on to someone else.

On the basic plan we use calls are 55 centimes a minute.

Dont know about the other providers, SFR and Bouygues.

However, just for the convenience, I would take this option.

Thanks, we have a over a month to decide. I guess that I dodn't want the responsibility of taking someone else's propery and being responsible for it. It would be so much easier if it was already in the Paris apartment and we could just leave it there, instead of traveling with it.

Payphones can be a nuisance, since so many of them are out of order, signed or not, and sometimes there are people who get on one and use it forever, leaving you waiting in line for ages.

I'll find out just what type of service she has.

Thanks again,

Nina

Go to www.prepaidgsm.net and you can read on the operators page of the various French mobile operators....unlike their British counterparts, French mobile rates are among the highest in the world and the cheapest French sim pack is not much under €30 and calls are particularly expensive.

As you said since you will be using it only 7 or 8 times, I don't think it is worth it despite the fact I am a big proponent of using mobile phones...perhaps your own carrier's roaming will be better....where do you live? You may already have a mobile phone and a carrier that allows international roaming with the proper frequencies. That might be a better idea.

xyz_123 I live in San Francisco and my own cell company is Cingular. With their international plan I think calls are about $1.49 a minute (not sure because I haven't checked in over a year), plus a small monthly charge.

Since we no longer have to call home when we're traveling, we have never considered using anything but a prepaid French phone card or the phones in the apartments that we have rented, for local calls. For the few calls that we unexpectedly had to make to the U.S. last year, we used our French phone card and called from our apartment, and still had time left on the card.

During this upcoming two week trip over the Holidays, we will only be in Paris, and the use of pay phones will be minimal.

The apartment owner kindly offered her phone, but I think that we will pass and go with the cheapest phone card.

Thanks for the all of the info, it helped me to make up my mind.

Nina

I live in San Francisco and purchased a French SIM card last year to try it out. I have Cingular also. We spend 2 months in France each year.

Calls on the cell phone were .55E per minute. Local calls on a phone card were .017E per minute. Calls from Beaujolais to Brittany were .07E per minute. Calls to the US (different phone card) were .025E per min.

If you activate "international roaming" at no cost on Cingular, calls are 1E per minute - which works out to about $1.40 or so with the exchange rate & tax.

If you have a land line at the apt, I would suggest that you not use the owner's cell phone. There are enough pay phones in Paris that you won't have trouble making calls, and if you are at Versailles & need to call - splurge for 1E per min on your Cingular.

Also, If the owner's phone needs a SIM card (that you must purchase), then add 24E to purchase the SIM card. Cell phone minutes for 10E (less than twenty 1 min calls) expire in 15 days. SIM cards expire in 6 months after the last call.

xyz123 could tell you about other options that would be less expensive for cell phones in Europe, but like he suggested - it would not be the best choice for your situation.

Stu Dudley

T-Mobile's intl rates for France are $0.99/min, no monthly charge or minimum.

Cingular also has $0.99/min plan but you have to pay a mon. fee ($5-6)

We have made umpteen trips to Paris, and never found the need to have a cell phone, well at least not since they have been available.

I would never have consider it now, if she had not offered to lend it to us. In my own mind, I can't justify the cost versus the convenience. As I said, using payphones with prepaid cards, can be a pain to use, waiting for others to finish their calls, out of order etc... but in the end, considering the cost and our minimal useage, they will work best for us, even on 4-5 week stays in Paris.

Not knowing the cost of French cards, I thought that they might be cheaper, plus the added convenience. I think that if we didn't have a free phone in the apartment, a cell would be the way to go.

Thanks again,

Nina

I will be travelling to Paris with an unlocked quad-band GSM phone. I'd like to purchase a SIM card there. Can anybody recommend a provider and also a store where I can buy one? Like we have Cingular and Verizon stores in the U.S., do they have similar stores there? What would be the least expensive SIM, as I don't expect to be making too many outgoing calls? (I expect to get more incomong calls.) Thanks.

http://mobile.orange.fr/0/visiteur/P...CRTS&TOP=O offers free SIMs, and airtime for €10.

Robespierre:

Orange typically charges 15 euros for their sim cards. If you go into their store online and select a sim card it is priced at 15 euros. How do you get one for free?

Thanks!

See if this works for visitors by delivering to one's hotel:

http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/simeve...ora06068_un_04

Ropbespierre, there is a little problem if you read the 'terms and conditions' :
"The Promotion is available to all customers who order a free of charge SIM connection pack between the 6th and 31st November 2006"
(And it's Orange UK, not a problem for receiving calls only in France (they will be free) but roaming fees will apply for outgoing calls)

Right. I didn't read the fine print.

Does Orange UK have a new policy regarding free reception of calls in France? If so, it's news to me.

Now i'm the one to be wrong (i tought Orange UK had the same policies than Orange France when it comes to incoming calls inside EU)
I checked and - indeed - international incoming calls aren't free with an Orange UK plan

I used my cell phone in Paris in November. Cingular, 5.99 I think per month and then calls at .99 per minute. Since I don't use my cell phone all that much, for the few times I called home to check on things, the convenience was great, the phone worked great, and it really didn't cost that much. It's all relative I guess, my charges were about 70.00 but like I say, the convenience was worth it to me. If you plan on making a lot of calls then I can see how this could get quite expensive and an alternative plan might be better.

Yes - as mentioned above, Cingular and T-Mobile both allow international roaming.

The difference between them (in my personal experience) is that T-Mobile is less expensive - no periodic charge; UK and France are 99¢ - and Cingular's Customer Service sucks.

Ah bummer , I thought you had a found a good promo!