Report on using Orange Mobicarte in France

[scirocco]

You can use internet straight away, but the cost will be deducted from your credit balance at whatever the base data rate is. The cheap Internet Max rate isn't guaranteed to kick in immediately although in practice it may not take the full 48 hours.

And no, Internet Max is a per-monthly deal - you can't have two in the same month. The 500MB is not rigidly enforced by all accounts so unless you are tethering or streaming loads of videos you may be okay.

[jb9]

I already have my Orange Mobicarte that I used successfully for a trip I completed this spring. It worked great but I am planning a trip in September and I want to make sure I can add value for my upcoming trip. I am within the 6 month window for the SIM card to be valid, but I am wondering which of the following options would work for adding value to the phone so it will work for my upcoming trip:

1. Buy a card from the UK Ebay Seller
2. Can I add Euros via my Orange Web Login?
3. Can I have a friend buy a recharge card who lives in the UK (not France)and send me the number via email?
4. Does the Orange recharge card have to be purchased in France?

Thanks in advance,

jb9

[inquisitor]

I fear you can't recharge French Orange mobicartes with British recharge vouchers. At least the French Orange website doesn't mention such an option. Instead you need to buy a recharge code from France which you should be able to enter through the USSD menu (dial #123#) while roaming.

[scirocco]

Originally Posted by jb9

but I am wondering which of the following options would work for adding value to the phone so it will work for my upcoming trip:jb9

1. Buy a card from the UK Ebay Seller? Yes, this will work, she sells Orange France recharges.
2. Can I add Euros via my Orange Web Login? No, not unless you have a French credit card.
3. Can I have a friend buy a recharge card who lives in the UK (not France)and send me the number via email? Not unless he has some way of buying an Orange France recharge.
4. Does the Orange recharge card have to be purchased in France? Ultimately, yes. The UK ebay seller gets a French associate to buy the recharges and send them to her. She then just sends you the recharge code by email, not a physical piece of paper. Works fine.

[TraceyJ]

I'm currently in France using my orange sim for the second time this year. The orange portail indicates that my number will expire on 13 May 2013, exactly a year after I purchased it. Do I need to buy a further top up while I'm here so that I can keep my card active beyond 13 May or is there no point buying a top up, ie will it expire anyway, irrespective of me adding credit early in 2013? It will work out cheaper in the long run rather than me starting again with the ebay seller if it will work.

Thanks to anyone who knows the answer

[scirocco]

The Mobicarte requires a minimum top-up of 10 euros every six months after the credit has expired to prevent the number from expiring. If you are in France and can buy a recharge, suggest you buy a 10 euro recharge voucher and take it home with you. You can do the recharge in your home country using the #123 menu on the phone. If you do it just before 13 May then the number will stay alive for another six months after that.

The vouchers last for ages if not used; the clock doesn't start ticking on the credit until you actually add it to the account.

[drama queen]

I am currently in France and also managed to get Orange Mobicarte working. France is the most difficult country I have encountered for visitors to purchase and activate SIM cards. Without the information in this Forum, I would not have succeeded. I have a few refinements following my experience. See below,


Mobicarte Orange PREPAID SIM info
Orange Mobicarte is €9.90 for card, and €9 for 500MB for use up to 1 month- Min top-up €10 - so total €19.90. "BP Mois internet Max" add-on (after 500MB speed gets throttled). It seems like the best option for short term visitors to France, who require Data.

Preparation:
Before purchasing the Orange SIM, take the following important precautions.

• Switch off all packet-data before activitating new SIM. This is necessary because default tariff on a new SIM charges for data at an exorbitant out-of-bundle rate. You need to avoid using data/voice/SMS until you have changed your tariff from the default to the Internet Max tariff.
• Disable any Lost/Stolen phone apps that cause an SMS msg to be sent when you insert a new SIM.
• Disable email clients - as email protocols are charged out-of-bundle (webmail - eg gmail ok)
• Disable Skype/Viber/VOIP Do not activate - as they can invalidate bundle.
• No Tethering!

Purchasing & Registration of card on default Tariff:
Registration of card can take up to 24 hours - before which the next step below won't work! After setting up my registration, the shop assistant inserted the €10 top-up for me. The Orange shop logged my passport details on registration, but they made a serious mistake - they didn't send a copy of my passport to HQ. The shop assistant admitted to never having done a registration for a non-national before. She assured me that the registration was ok and would be completed after lunch! My registration was blocked because of this failure by the shop assistant. I sent an email afterwards to <blois.contrats@orange.com> with a photo of my passport and my Orange phone number, to get unblocked. I tried several other shops - and none were familiar with the process for non-residents. My advice would be to assume that all Orange shop assistants are clueless in this regard - and send an email with a copy of your passport to the above address, just in case. This means you will need other Internet access (WiFi etc) because your Orange Internet will not be working until this step is complete.


Tariff change to Internet Max:
Tariff change can take up to 48 hours - but only took a short time for me! On the default tariff, you are charged out-of-bundle rates for data, so do not switch on packet data until you have followed the process below and changed the tariff.

Dial #123#
You get a startup USSD menu showing the credit on your prepaid account. You need enough credit on your account to buy the €9 data plan.

Choose 1-Menu
Choose 4-Bons plans
Choose 3-Internet et emails
Choose 3-Option Internet Max
Choose 2-Souscrire (Subscribe).
Choose 1=Valider (Confirm).
That should be it. Officially the option may take 48 hours to come into effect, however in reality it can take less.

One really frustrating thing about this process is that Orange sent no messages to indicate progress/failure with the subscription process at any time. You can work out which stage you are at by probing for subtle changes in the USSD menus following the #123# command, or by setting up your on-line account on Orange : téléphones, forfaits, Internet, actualité, sport, video, and checking account settings

The Orange APN was set up automatically when I inserted the Orange SIM card.

[wco81]

Is the mobicarte only for phones?

Can you use with Mifi devices?

What is the throttled speed?

[drama queen]

Originally Posted by wco81

Is the mobicarte only for phones?

Can you use with Mifi devices?

What is the throttled speed?

It is clearly intended for phones. I used it in an Android SGS2. I didn't try it in any other device - I suspect it would work from an access perspective, but the limitations on tethering would render it useless in a dongle or MiFi device. On the last day of my trip, I decided to try tethering to see if it was just a threat - or if the restriction is for real. I set my phone to become a WiFi Hotspot and tethered my Android tablet to it. Tethering was blocked. This has never happened to me on any other network. Even though I was using another Android device, I was blocked. I also tried Skype and it was also blocked, as stated. I guess that Orange must be using some form of Deep Packet Inspection to identify the applications?

It might be worth trying to use a VPN to get around this blocking? The VPN client would need to be active in the phone so as to hide all data payload from Orange's deep-packet-inspection. They might not block VPNs because they are validly used by business users accessing their corporate networks? I don't know whether it is possible to get WiFi tethering to hook into a VPN tunnel?

Despite the limitations - once it was set up - I found the Mobicarte excellent for my stay in France. The Orange coverage and capacity is generally very good. I had WiFi in hotels in the evenings - so mobile use was mainly for maps, apps and web-browsing during the day. Gmail app. worked fine.

[woody1]

I was able to tether freely on Orange in France when I was there in 2009. I can't remember if I tethered any time after that. I guess they tightened up their detection since then.

I would be curious to find out if anybody has tried using a VPN to circumvent the detection. If anybody has a chance, try it and post the results here.