SIM cards in Paris & London
 

I will be going to London first & then Paris in Sept. I have a phone that I bought on past trips from Carphone Warehouse in London. I will buy a new SIM card there. In Paris, where can I buy a SIM Card and which company is best? Does anyone know of a friendly place that will help me (in English) activate the card? I will be staying in the Marais.

For Paris, you can order a free Lebara SIM card and buy time for it when you arrive in France. www.lebara.fr

Are you absolutely sure that your Carphone mobile phone is unlocked?

In Paris, Phonehouse has many outlets all over Paris and personal there usually speak English and will help you with the SIM installation/activation.

www.phonehouse.fr

Does Phonehouse sell a SIM card that also allows for internet access? Just wondering. Lebara's site doesn't mention internet, only calls and SMS. I have the Goodle phone (unlocked) from LG and will take it with me to Paris. I'd buy internet time on a SIM card if available.

Thanks for the phonehouse lead. As for unlocked phones, Carphone Warehouse's site says that it sells unlocked pay as you go phones but does not say which ones. I want to buy a phone for under 15 pounds, as I have done in the past. A question about unlocked phones: is it the company that makes the phone or the SIM card company that determines if a phone is unlocked or locked? I take it that all this term means is whether it will accept SIM cards for a different country?

Phone manufactures can lock the phone to a specific service provider, (this is called a subsidiary lock, there can be other types of locks). This is done at the service providers request which prohibits your purchasing a phone from them at a promotional price, cancelling your service, and establishing service with a competitor which may be in the same country.

French law states that a service provider must unlock their phones 6 months after purchase upon request of the user. Current US law states that only the service provider may legally unlock a mobile phone (a result of heavy lobbying by phone companies). I cannot speculate what rules might exist in the UK, Canada, or Australia but unlocked phones are sold everywhere on the used markets: eBay, Craigslist, ets.