dsevig

we have had a bunch of problems the last 2 years in europe with our Iphone usage with a certain carrier.

any opinions on what has worked best for u over seas.? t mobile att etc?

aliced

We've had TMobile for probably 10-15 years, and of course it works great in Europe w free texting and data (due to Deutche Telecom origin), our iPhones work better than our old Samsung Androids, here and there. We love TMobile and our two phones at senior prices come in at $60/month total (i 6 and i 6S). Have previously had Sprint, At&T carriers and TMobile is better than they were. No we wouldnt consider paying Verizon prices. But so many people are so married to the Bell System......

Seamus

Previous AT&T customer who jumped to T Mobile and have been much happier with them both in the US and traveling abroad.

StCirq

You could try this: https://boutique.orange.fr/mobile/ca...ge-holiday-eng

ahbonvraiment

been using iPhones for 6-7 years now switching to Samsung. Never had any problem.

Just go to any shop - orange Bouygues SFR.
Get the plan to suits you best.

sf7307

We have AT&T at home and due to an unlocking snafu with a new iphone X (AT&T's fault) we had to sign up for the $10/day interntional plan when we were last in France, Ireland and England. It worked great for phoning, texting and internet (including google maps, which might have been the most important).

dsevig

we trried that with our carrier and still didnt work. waste of money that I got back.

StuDudley

"we trried that with our carrier"

Which carrier? AT&T?. We've used AT&T for about 3-4 years and never had problems.

sf7307. I have to purchase a new iphone (probably 8). What kind of lock problems did you initally have?

Stu Dudley
Go Niners!!!
Mostert is from my alma mater

sf7307

We bought new iphones in the spring. It was a 2-for-1 deal. It turns out that because one was "financed", that one was supposed to be locked, but the other one was supposed to be unlocked (if they had disclosed that, I would have paid cash). When we got to Heathrow, I went to the O2 kiosk to get a sim card and found out that both phones were locked.

Bottom line - if you pay cash, it should be unlocked - just check that it is before you leave for France (better yet, before you leave the store)!

And Go Niners!!

ahbonvraiment

What does that mean ?

joanatravels

We used to have Verizon and then switched to T-Mobile. Absolutely love it. We don't have to pay extra for our data and I believe it's also free to send text messages whenever we travel abroad. We've used it in Paris, Barcelona, Sevilla, Granada, London, Hamburg, Gent, Bruges and Brussels.

ahbonvraiment

our daughter is in the US currently and we use WhatsApp. Works fine. She sends pics and videos too.

KayF

We bought a SIM card from 3 (a mobile phone carrier) and used it for a month in France with no problems. We did buy it in London, I'm not sure if you can get them in France. It was quite cheap, I think 15 pounds and we used the data every day for maps, emails, translations etc, made some calls but not a lot.

Also my sister uses Whatsapp when she is overseas, it's free to get the app and you can use it for voice calls but I think only with other Whatsapp users so wouldn't work if you had to call your bank or hotel, for example. With Whatsapp you can send text messages, photos etc.

We were with T Mobile for a few years when living in the UK and had no problems with them, used them all the time in Europe.

Kay

Coquelicot

We have T-mobile which we use for texting and data in France. We don't use it to make phone calls within France, but the plan gives us free calls to the US if we're on wifi. Most of the time it works great, though it's sometimes geographically challenged, usually when we could desperately use a traffic update. But I don't think that's a T-mobile problem.

We make local calls on a French phone we bought at E Leclerc along with a prepayment plan. If we don't use it we're charged 1.50 euro per month and when we're using it in France we're charged for whatever that month's usage is.

At home we live in a T-mobile black hole so we have to use wifi to make calls. This works for my phone but not my husband's, even though we're on the same plan and have Samsung phones, just not the same model.

sf7307

Doesn't WhatsApp require WiFi (as opposed to cell service)? If I have WiFi, I can just use Facetime Audio to make a call. But if I wanted to be connected "on the road" (internet for maps and googling), don't I need something else?

hetismij2

Whatsapp requires an internet connection whether on someones WiFi or using your phones data connection.
Many businesses also have Whatsapp, but not all, and it only works with mobile phones not landlines.

We have found some black holes in France regaardless of carrier - we are on te same Dutch provider, using EU roaming and our phones are set to find the strongest signal, but often find different carriers sometimes with one having 4G while the other has none, but also plenty of places with no signal for phone or data.

If you are willing and able to swtich carriers and you are not EU then T-Mobile is probably your best bet. Or have your phone unlocked and use a local SIM, which you can also use when in other EU countries. It is however not yet clear how Brexit will affect roaming in Europe with a British SIM and vice versa.