free mobile offer
 

free mobile offer is available on some stores/press

https://mobile.free.fr/couverture/bo...teractive.html

dunno if foreign CC works....

Someone ask me some details in PM...

i do not know well this service coz i'm a real FR live in france

AFAIK cost is 12 euros, 10€ of SIM card cost + 2€ for 2h of international landline phone for up to 100 destinations including mobile china, USA/CA and 2/3 others + 50Mo i suppose...

i think it is not possible to pay for more than 1 month...

dunno if foreign CC is accepted or not...

You have to have in mind, that FREE doesn't sell prepaid cards. All what they sell, is (rolling) contracts, in French called FORFAIT.

A forfait is a hybrid between pre- and postpaid. On the prepaid wiki, we also get conflicting reports of the cards that FREE accepts. On the machine is a sticker showing CB for Carte Bancaire of the French credit card system and Mastercard and VISA.

So it can be both ways. I'm a bit sceptical because you actually sign a contract on this machine. On the other side I got a report of an American guy, who wanted to know how he is to cancel his contract, because FREE keeps on charging his CC long after he has returned home. He simply thought, he comes away with it but Mastercard refused to reimburse him because FREE had a legal claim.

We need the simple info, whether this machine accepts foreign cards - especially after Joe has died. If they really do, will you please be warned, that you make a contract with FREE which you need to cancel later.

When I look on forums on the net, I don't see any info whether FREE actually declines out-of-France credit cards, only prepaid CCs like Visa Electron and Mastercard Maestro are no more accepted. This form on the pic looks like it acceps any Visa or Master: http://www.universfreebox.com/articl...plus-acceptees

Hmm, I thought if you got it from the machine it was only a 1-month deal, not a rolling contract.

I was actually going to go a little out of my way to go to the Free Center near the Madeline Metro but now I guess I shouldn't bother.

Gonna try either the Bouygues or Let's Go. The 2 Euro for 500 MB for 2 days and recharging 2 Euro at a time seems relatively an attractive deal.

You can choose between 1 month and rolling ;)

So how much is it for the SIM and then to load up some data?

At least you can forget about Bouygues because it has been confirmed now, that you can't top up their prepaid card in 2€ steps without a French credit card. The bigger recharges like 10€ you can do, buying vouchers. But you wont get a good data rate for this. The top-ups will not add up either. You can only top up after data or time has been used up. Very convenient. The text on the WIKI has been changed because of it.

What Free is concerned, I asked the forum here, whether they accept non-French credit cards at their machines. It has the French CB (for Cartes Bancaire) sticker which hints, that they are not. But someone has to try it, before we can really recommend them.

The problem is that we mostly get information about the French SIM Cards by French people who can never imagine, that their providers don't accept any payment system other than a French one. But B&You, Simyo, Virgin, ..... only accept French Cards; SFR only AmEx as a non-French. system.

So you might give it a try and give us a report, whether their machines are really an option for foreigners. Rates you find in the prepaid WIKI.

Hmm, I'll try to make it over, though they don't have any in the arrondissements near the Seine, which would be the most convenient.

OK and as I recall with SFR, the data choices weren't that great. Looks like I'll be going with Lets Go Orange most likely.

I can confirm it works with foreign cards (their machines accept Visa, Mastercard and should also accept Maestro, V Pay), and on Joe forum there are other foreigners who have succesfully tried. :)

The usage is extremely simple. Just remind that you need a real French address (and with "real" I mean that it just have to exist :D) and to enable bill delivery by mail once your account gets activated.

But how is the network?

Compared to sfr for the people who used Joe that is?

@ TUX: Slowly we get info about the Free offer.
After Joe Mobile is gone many users may look for another choice:

Now, we know, that you can buy their card at their vending machine with foreign credit cards and we know that you can get a 1 month SIM which terminates automatically (or a running contract) as alternative. Fine.

But completing the WIKI about France, there are much more questions which come to my mind and i'm still not sure if Free is a viable option. Because I'm simply not aware of the final price and included data of the offer.

- 1.) The 19.99 EUR fee for one month is added by a 10 EUR "maintenance fee" for the machine ?!? Is this machine made out of gold :) Does this apply to the 1-month SIM cards too or only to the contracts (forfaits). So simply, is the one month given out for 19.99 or 29.99 EUR in the end?

- 2.) Free sells 3 GB of data on its own 3G and roaming on Orange. And if they detect a "compatible" 4G device, they give out 20 GB of data on their own 4G/LTE and 3G on Free and roaming on Orange.
Well, it's a slight difference whether you get 3 GB or 20 GB.
So to be precise, how does Free detect exactly what: a LTE enabled device on 2600 MHz? They suppose to show which data allowance they give you in the user account. So this seems to be fixed then. How can one be sure (even having a 4G/LTE enabled device on 2600 MHz) to get the larger data allowance for instance if you happen to log in outside of Free's 4G zone?

Sorry about all the questions, but I'm still trying to verify if Free is an option to replace JoeMobile ore not.

It's made of true 18k gold :p Anyway, it's 10€ for the sim card + 19.99€ for 1 month of contract. So it's 29.99€ for 1 month.

I guess they check your IMEI, but I don't know really...

The only way to know this is to check the MNC of the network you're currently on, because free tweaked the STK to make the phone recognise Orange network (208-01) as 'free' (so you can't avoid roaming). Free network code is 208-14/15.
If you happen to be outside Free's 4G network, but you're still on their own 3G network, provided that you're using a 4G phone, you still get
the 20GB bundle. Otherwise you'll get only 3GB.

No problem ;)

Can you tether?

Not sure how good 20 GB is, even with LTE, if you only use on a mobile device.

Hmm, 30 Euro is too steep for me, especially for a 5-day visit.

Free doesn't seem too interested in catering to tourists or for that matter, the PAYG clients in general. You could say that about all the French carriers compared to carriers in other EU nations but at least some of them offer some kind of prepaid product. But the prepaid situation has been worse in the past so maybe there will be progress.

See now with 20 GB, if there was roaming within the EU, it would make sense to go to the trouble of seeking those sparsely distributed kiosks.

It seems so. :) But you can't put the sim in a Mobile WiFi router or dongle.

Well I'd tether through my iPad anyways, better battery life than any Mifi, not to mention support for a lot of LTE bands.