(#1)
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Junior Member
Amateur Member
Posts: 17
Join Date: 11 Aug 2006
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PAYG in France? -
23-05-2010, 18:24
Hello Everyone,
What is the latest thinking about Pay-As-You-Go SIM cards in France? Are there any such plans for extended term visitors in France? All suggestions will be appreciated. |
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(#2)
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Member
Official Member
Posts: 47
Join Date: 18 May 2010
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SIMs at Paris Gara du Nord? -
25-05-2010, 02:22
is it possible to purchase a PAYG SIM at Gara du Nord in Paris?
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(#3)
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Senior Member
Prepaid Pioneer
Posts: 696
Join Date: 01 Aug 2006
Location: Madrid
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25-05-2010, 17:28
Quote:
See: Magasins de téléphonie - Un magasin dans votre département Also there is bound to be a Bouyges shop somewhere within a few minutes walk of the station. You could check their website for store locations. |
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(#4)
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Member
Advanced Member
Posts: 92
Join Date: 12 May 2009
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29-06-2010, 21:55
Note that in France emails "eat up" your credit much faster than regular browsing.
I purchased an Orange PAYG card, it took a couple of hours for it to be activated (had to go into an Orange shop to do it). The credit was eaten up very quickly, so it becomes very expensive. |
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(#5)
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Member
Advanced Member
Posts: 48
Join Date: 10 May 2010
Location: Australia
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07-07-2010, 02:48
What do you mean emails use up credit faster than regular browsing? It should use hardly anything? So what's the current status of prepaid data and voice in France? A friend suggested a store called 'Leclerc'? Is this right? I still have NO idea what SIM to get in France, they all seem hideously expensive and hard to get, or am I wrong? Thankfully we are only in Paris for 3 days but having online GPS would be fantastic.
Looking for data / voice SIMS for Europe in August 2010 - UK, France, Italy, Austria, Croatia and Bosnia |
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(#6)
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Member
Advanced Member
Posts: 92
Join Date: 12 May 2009
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07-07-2010, 04:19
I don't know whether there's a logical explanation, but that was the reality, and it's well documented in this forum.
I bought an Orange SIM, it took a while to find one of their stores (though you can buy refills everywhere). |
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(#7)
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Member
Advanced Member
Posts: 48
Join Date: 10 May 2010
Location: Australia
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09-07-2010, 04:51
I thought Orange was bad? Do all the French data SIMs charge per minimum block making them useless for A-GPS? Anyone heard of 'leclerc'?
Looking for data / voice SIMS for Europe in August 2010 - UK, France, Italy, Austria, Croatia and Bosnia |
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(#8)
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Senior Member
Prepaid Professionist
Posts: 1,399
Join Date: 15 Nov 2006
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09-07-2010, 11:48
Quote:
So you can browse the web without limitation, but as soon as you use an eMail client or Google Maps or any other application, that uses other ports than those mentioned above, your credit will disappear quickly. If your eMail provider has a webmail interface, through which you can open your eMails in the browser instead of using an eMail client, this will be included in the "Internet Max" options, since technically webmail is just a web page. You can also surf the web using a computer with a 3G modem under those "Internet Max" options - when I tried that back in May it worked flawlessly and no additional charges applied. However be sure there's no other application running, that would establish IP-connections on non-web-ports (e.g. Skype, antivirus updater etc.; Windows Update is not critical, as it runs over port 80). Also there's no need to manipulate the USER_AGENT of your browser. Quote:
Btw the French abbreviate kilobytes with KO, megabytes with MO and gigabytes with GO. Quote:
For A-GPS, which generates just a few dozen kilobytes of traffic each time you start a GPS-app, Leclerc seems to be the cheapest solution. postpaid: O2 on Business XL; prepaid: DE: Aldi Talk, Lidl; UK: 3; BG: MTel, vivacom; RU: MTS; RS: MTS; UAE: du Tourist SIM; INT'L: toggle mobile VoIP: sipgate.de (German DID); sipgate.co.uk (British DID); ukddi.com (British DID); sipcall.ch (Swiss DID); megafon.bg (Bulgarian DID); InterVoip.com |
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(#9)
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Member
Advanced Member
Posts: 48
Join Date: 10 May 2010
Location: Australia
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11-07-2010, 05:53
OK looks like LeClerc is the option then as it is A-GPS and Google Maps that we need it for most, as well as day to day email or whatever, so small data blocks very frequently will cause issues with anything else.
1KB increments are ok for this general application then? I never thought I would see the day when Australia in remote rural Australia had more affordable 3G data than urban Europe! Thankfully we are only spending a few days in Paris. Thanks for the help then, LeClerc it is! Looking for data / voice SIMS for Europe in August 2010 - UK, France, Italy, Austria, Croatia and Bosnia |
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(#10)
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Senior Member
Prepaid Professionist
Posts: 1,399
Join Date: 15 Nov 2006
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11-07-2010, 11:11
The smaller the billing increment, the cheaper for you and 1KB is the smallest billing increment available in the market. Here in Germany billing increments are at least 10KB, allthough the larger billing increment is offset by the way lower data rates here.
While downloading ephemeris for GPS (AGPS) generates only a few dozen kilobytes, Google Maps is way more data-hungry. Just opening Google Maps and viewing the map extract at your current position will download at least 100KB. If you then start panning the map, searching points of interest and calculating routes, you can quickly generate several hundred kilobytes within a minute. In order to save data volume you should not use satellite view, as the satellite images are larger than the plain map view images, but in any case Google Maps can draw your credit quickly and is not suited for permanent use at French data rates. In the beginning better check your credit after each usage of Google Maps in order to get a feeling on how expensive it is. postpaid: O2 on Business XL; prepaid: DE: Aldi Talk, Lidl; UK: 3; BG: MTel, vivacom; RU: MTS; RS: MTS; UAE: du Tourist SIM; INT'L: toggle mobile VoIP: sipgate.de (German DID); sipgate.co.uk (British DID); ukddi.com (British DID); sipcall.ch (Swiss DID); megafon.bg (Bulgarian DID); InterVoip.com |
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