PAYG 3G Dongle for France?
Discussion
I'm off to France for 2 weeks in July and have been looking at Orange's website to see what my options are for mobile broadband as I'll be moving to a different hotel each day so can't always rely on having WiFi available.
It seems I can get a 1 month contract with a 1GB data allowance for £10 which would suit me just fine. If I read the small print though, their comedy pricing says that within the UK if I go over the 1GB allowance it will cost me 5p / MB in the UK but all roaming data in the EU is charged at £3 / MB (£3000 / GB
) so they can feck off.
Does anyone know what my best option would be for a PAYG 3G data allowance in France of 1GB that would last me a month that isn't going to cost the earth and is easy to buy / set up for someone who only speaks schoolboy French where we didn't learn about "le 3G dongles"?
I don't mind going for a global SIM if these are a good deal or is there anywhere to buy French ones online before I go as I'll be on the move for the whole trip and pretty much out in the sticks the whole time so may not have time to faff about looking for a shop selling mobile broadband?
And one last daft question.... If it's a 3G SIM / dongle and I can only get 2G coverage in some areas do 3G dongles fall back to 2G like mobile phones or do they not work like that?
It seems I can get a 1 month contract with a 1GB data allowance for £10 which would suit me just fine. If I read the small print though, their comedy pricing says that within the UK if I go over the 1GB allowance it will cost me 5p / MB in the UK but all roaming data in the EU is charged at £3 / MB (£3000 / GB
) so they can feck off.Does anyone know what my best option would be for a PAYG 3G data allowance in France of 1GB that would last me a month that isn't going to cost the earth and is easy to buy / set up for someone who only speaks schoolboy French where we didn't learn about "le 3G dongles"?
I don't mind going for a global SIM if these are a good deal or is there anywhere to buy French ones online before I go as I'll be on the move for the whole trip and pretty much out in the sticks the whole time so may not have time to faff about looking for a shop selling mobile broadband?
And one last daft question.... If it's a 3G SIM / dongle and I can only get 2G coverage in some areas do 3G dongles fall back to 2G like mobile phones or do they not work like that?
neilski said:
I'm off to France for 2 weeks in July and have been looking at Orange's website to see what my options are for mobile broadband as I'll be moving to a different hotel each day so can't always rely on having WiFi available.
It seems I can get a 1 month contract with a 1GB data allowance for £10 which would suit me just fine. If I read the small print though, their comedy pricing says that within the UK if I go over the 1GB allowance it will cost me 5p / MB in the UK but all roaming data in the EU is charged at £3 / MB (£3000 / GB) so they can feck off.
Does anyone know what my best option would be for a PAYG 3G data allowance in France of 1GB that would last me a month that isn't going to cost the earth and is easy to buy / set up for someone who only speaks schoolboy French where we didn't learn about "le 3G dongles"?
I don't mind going for a global SIM if these are a good deal or is there anywhere to buy French ones online before I go as I'll be on the move for the whole trip and pretty much out in the sticks the whole time so may not have time to faff about looking for a shop selling mobile broadband?
And one last daft question.... If it's a 3G SIM / dongle and I can only get 2G coverage in some areas do 3G dongles fall back to 2G like mobile phones or do they not work like that?
Your best bet is going to be to buy something in France. Anything you take from the UK you are going to be dealing with Roaming charges.It seems I can get a 1 month contract with a 1GB data allowance for £10 which would suit me just fine. If I read the small print though, their comedy pricing says that within the UK if I go over the 1GB allowance it will cost me 5p / MB in the UK but all roaming data in the EU is charged at £3 / MB (£3000 / GB
) so they can feck off.Does anyone know what my best option would be for a PAYG 3G data allowance in France of 1GB that would last me a month that isn't going to cost the earth and is easy to buy / set up for someone who only speaks schoolboy French where we didn't learn about "le 3G dongles"?
I don't mind going for a global SIM if these are a good deal or is there anywhere to buy French ones online before I go as I'll be on the move for the whole trip and pretty much out in the sticks the whole time so may not have time to faff about looking for a shop selling mobile broadband?
And one last daft question.... If it's a 3G SIM / dongle and I can only get 2G coverage in some areas do 3G dongles fall back to 2G like mobile phones or do they not work like that?
Orange do roaming data bundles for phones now (i.e. not for use in a 3G dongle) but to give you an idea even with one of those, 200MB would cost you 90 quid.
I had exactly the same thing last year - toured round France for a month and needed regular internet access. Couple of things to look out for:
1. I bought a dongle from an SFR shop in Calais. It was advertised as 39 EUR but actually cost 99 EUR with a 60 EUR cashback voucher that could only be sent to a French address - couldn't be bother faffing about with that so it was cracking on for a hundred quid for the dongle which ain't cheap. This seemed to be standard practice in all the mobile shops in the Calais mall last year - might have changed now.
2. My French ain't great so when I had used up the credit that came with the dongle (not much), I had to phone to up to activate the additional credit I had bought in the shop. You couldn't do it online and the french automatic system was way beyond my meagre language skills! Had to get a friendly hotel receptionist to sort it out for me.
3G coverage was pretty patchy as well. As mentioned before there an amazing amount of "McDo"s in France and the free wifi is very helpful!
1. I bought a dongle from an SFR shop in Calais. It was advertised as 39 EUR but actually cost 99 EUR with a 60 EUR cashback voucher that could only be sent to a French address - couldn't be bother faffing about with that so it was cracking on for a hundred quid for the dongle which ain't cheap. This seemed to be standard practice in all the mobile shops in the Calais mall last year - might have changed now.
2. My French ain't great so when I had used up the credit that came with the dongle (not much), I had to phone to up to activate the additional credit I had bought in the shop. You couldn't do it online and the french automatic system was way beyond my meagre language skills! Had to get a friendly hotel receptionist to sort it out for me.
3G coverage was pretty patchy as well. As mentioned before there an amazing amount of "McDo"s in France and the free wifi is very helpful!
Edited by Junior Bianno on Wednesday 9th June 13:05
Thanks for the replies so far.
I'll be cycling across the Pyrenees then from the Med to Caen for a ferry home. We're hoping to avoid any major towns so Maccy Dee's may not be an option so I'll probably be looking out for hotels with WiFi.
I'll have a borrowed Three dongle with me so does anyone have any idea whether these are locked to Three or if an Orange or SFR one will work?
I'll be cycling across the Pyrenees then from the Med to Caen for a ferry home. We're hoping to avoid any major towns so Maccy Dee's may not be an option so I'll probably be looking out for hotels with WiFi.
I'll have a borrowed Three dongle with me so does anyone have any idea whether these are locked to Three or if an Orange or SFR one will work?
neilski said:
I'll have a borrowed Three dongle with me so does anyone have any idea whether these are locked to Three
It will probably be locked. However, many Huawei models are simple to unlock, either using a site like DC Unlocker or via a code from ebay for a couple of quid. You then use the DC software instead of 3's to fire up the internet 
Hi.
I have an unlocked Mi-fi dongle which was previously locked to the 3 network in the UK.
I'm in France for short periods through the year - and for 4 or 5 weeks each summer - and want to get a local SIM which I can then use in the Mi-fi dongle to get Internet access for my laptop - can anyone who has done this successfully please offer any tips and suggestions? Thanks
I have an unlocked Mi-fi dongle which was previously locked to the 3 network in the UK.
I'm in France for short periods through the year - and for 4 or 5 weeks each summer - and want to get a local SIM which I can then use in the Mi-fi dongle to get Internet access for my laptop - can anyone who has done this successfully please offer any tips and suggestions? Thanks
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