Report on using Orange Mobicarte in France

[V6Matt]

Hi All

I have a French mobicarte ordered and activated via their website (photocopy of ID sent with cheque to orange). The sim should come with 5 euro standard, am I right in saying I can just add 5 euro credit then get Orange Max.

Or can I not use the 5 euros already on the card for Orange Max? (Also will this 5+5 count as the 10 euros required to keep the sim active?)

[inquisitor]

Why not? When I purchased an Orange mobicarte the last time in 2008 it worked like this.

[104001]

Originally Posted by V6Matt

Hi All

I have a French mobicarte ordered and activated via their website (photocopy of ID sent with cheque to orange). The sim should come with 5 euro standard, am I right in saying I can just add 5 euro credit then get Orange Max.

Or can I not use the 5 euros already on the card for Orange Max? (Also will this 5+5 count as the 10 euros required to keep the sim active?)

For the first question, yes. You can use the pre-loaded credit to activate Max. Second question, I believe that it will not keep it activated more then one month.

[V6Matt]

Originally Posted by 104001

For the first question, yes. You can use the pre-loaded credit to activate Max. Second question, I believe that it will not keep it activated more then one month.

Thanks, I am actually in France now with an activated French sim.

(Though not using the actual card)...oddly my HTC won't connect to the sim and shows no signal? (Unlocked and roaming set to on), however plugging it into a relatives French phone means it picks up the signal straight away.

Any clues?

[V6Matt]

Originally Posted by V6Matt

Thanks, I am actually in France now with an activated French sim.

(Though not using the actual card)...oddly my HTC won't connect to the sim and shows no signal? (Unlocked and roaming set to on), however plugging it into a relatives French phone means it picks up the signal straight away.

Any clues?

Now plugged into my dongle and it is picking up a signal but the orange/orange/orange doesn't appear to be working. It tries to connect but times out (definitely should be able to connect though)



What am I doing wrong?

[inquisitor]

Try "orange.fr" as APN despite just "orange" should work, too. Maybe Orange in the meantime refuse connections from non-handsets by IMEI (serial number) as the "Orange Max" data option is limited to handset use by their terms and conditions.

EDIT: Have you actually placed a phone call with your SIM card? I remember that you had to place a call in order the SIM got get fully activated. Just try calling some toll-free French number.

[V6Matt]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

Try "orange.fr" as APN despite just "orange" should work, too. Maybe Orange in the meantime refuse connections from non-handsets by IMEI (serial number) as the "Orange Max" data option is limited to handset use by their terms and conditions.

EDIT: Have you actually placed a phone call with your SIM card? I remember that you had to place a call in order the SIM got get fully activated. Just try calling some toll-free French number.

Worked out what it was, just needed the dial number of *99# added and it connects but obviously pops up with the message saying computers are barred. However at least I know it works and just need to sort my HTC issue out!

[inquisitor]

If you're lucky they still distingusih between handsets and non-handsets only by the "user agent", by which every browser identifies itself upon each http-request, and not by IMEI. In that case the following "hack" should still work:
Use Firefox, install the "User Agent Switcher" addon and change the "user agent" from the menu to one from a mobile device (such as the iPhone which is preconfigured in the "User Agent Switcher").

[flychr]

hi
can you confirm that orange mobilcarte vill work in usb modem?
i got

2. tried sim in usb modem and there was a warning not to use the sim on the PC!

but maybe I am wrong?
chr

[inquisitor]

Officially it won't. The question is how Orange technically prevent users to use the SIM in a non-handset. If they do it only by inspecting the user agent of http requests, then the above described workaround should let you use the SIM in a non-handset (with the side effect of some websites automatically showing their mobile version instead of the desktop one). If they however check the device's IMEI you will either need to manipulate the IMEI or use Wifi-tethering through a handset in addition to the user-agent manipulation.

Btw the last time I used a Mobicarte in France almost two years ago they were billing all traffic not using the standard http-ports (80, 8080) separately. So using an email client, instant messaging clients, ftp clients etc resulted in prohibitively high extra charges.

Let's hope France's latest market entrant Free will soon launch a prepaid product with affordable data rates available to visitors.