Internet Use In France (1 Viewer)

[sylvester1954]

Hello, sorry to ask what I am sure has been asked many times before but I am looking for the best way to access the internet when travelling in France. On recent short trips I have paid my phone provider, Vodafone, £3.50 a day to use my home minutes, texts and internet when abroad. Obviously, that works out pricey on a long trip. People have recommended Three, getting a data sim, but I am not clear whether I would need that plus my normal call and text package. Someone also recommended FON as I am a BT Broadband customer. I understand that there are FON WiFi hotspots that I can access if I am with BT Mobile, which I can sign up to for £5 a month, though calls and texts would be expensive when abroad. Do any of you have experience of any of these? I would really welcome any advice. Thank you in advance

 

[Bluemooner]

We just use our mifi with a three pay as you go but make sure you have the add on

 

[sdc77]

Fon works for sure and I'm sure it's free if you're a BT broadband customer but .. We have 3.. Works well enough in most of the UK and in plenty of places in europe esp france. We use a 4g router and pay 15 per month unlimited.. There are other options though.

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[Bill_OR]

If you are a BTInternet customer you should get access to FON wifi hotspots without having to pay anything extra. The trouble is that FON hotspots are few and far between in France!

 

[Fragle]

We use the fon network in France. It does work very well but you would need something like the iboost from motor home wifi so as not to have to park on the persons driveway just to get the signal. I can recommend the iboost and service from motor home wifi. We also have a three data sim 12 g for 12 months that works really well and has great coverage.

 

[Dorwyn]

We just use our mifi with a three pay as you go but make sure you have the add on

What add on?

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[Manxcat]

Glad you asked because I was wondering about that too.

 

[Dorwyn]

Only I had trouble trying to get my mifi on 3 working while I was in France during the last few weeks. Many campsites had free wifi, which was a surprise, so it wasn't too much of a problem.

 

[laneside]

Glad you asked because I was wondering about that too.

So was I, hope he answers because we are on the tunnel next Thursday or Friday

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[RicknSue]

We have just returned from France and even though some sites had wifi the reception wasn't brilliant. Our saviour was the iBoost as not only did it magnify the site signal if you are a BT Fon customer there is a partnership with SFR Wifi so you can log on to all those places too! I only had to sign up to expensive Vodafone £3 per day deal once in the two weeks, and that's not bad as had to access internet every day for work reasons. Hope this helps!

 

[Cobweb]

We use Globalgig . We have to sign up for 3months minimum 2 gb at £48 a month . The SIM card is free for our cellular ipad or iPhone .
This works well for us because we spend a lot of time in Europe and the USA and have been able to be online almost every day during our trips . If anyone knows a better cheaper way let us know .

 

[normanandsue]

We use Macdonalds costs nothing ut a cup of coffee

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[sdc77]

We use Globalgig . We have to sign up for 3months minimum 2 gb at £48 a month . The SIM card is free for our cellular ipad or iPhone .
This works well for us because we spend a lot of time in Europe and the USA and have been able to be online almost every day during our trips . If anyone knows a better cheaper way let us know .

... £15 per month all you can eat data.. 4g (or 3g) with Three..
Our router is on permanently..

 

[RicknSue]

Yes but that does entail going to Macdonalds. We managed to avoid the dreaded burger chain for most of our recent french trip

 

[RicknSue]

The 3 option is our next step once we can either get one of our mobile phones unlocked and finish their contracts, or buy the Mifi from the iBoost Motorhome company

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[emjaiuk]

Hello, sorry to ask what I am sure has been asked many times before but I am looking for the best way to access the internet when travelling in France. On recent short trips I have paid my phone provider, Vodafone, £3.50 a day to use my home minutes, texts and internet when abroad. Obviously, that works out pricey on a long trip. People have recommended Three, getting a data sim, but I am not clear whether I would need that plus my normal call and text package. Someone also recommended FON as I am a BT Broadband customer. I understand that there are FON WiFi hotspots that I can access if I am with BT Mobile, which I can sign up to for £5 a month, though calls and texts would be expensive when abroad. Do any of you have experience of any of these? I would really welcome any advice. Thank you in advance

First, you don't have to pay any more with FON, it comes automatically with BT ADSL. You do have to make sure you are 'opted in' though. The FON log in is the same as your master BT login, including the @btinternet(or whatever)dot com. You can check if you are opted in somewhere on the FON website or on your BT account page. There have been the odd problem logging in that has been solved by opting out and opting back in on the BT web site. HOWEVER, as a previous poster has said, you really need a WiFi booster to get the best out of FON, and dramatically improve campsite WiFi. Again, as has already has been said the vast majority of people will recommend

http://www.motorhomewifi.com/

as a supplier. Good equipment and very, very good service and help. One tip, when you find the french login page, SFR FON only, not other SFR locations, if you search carefully you will see a small Union Jack which will take you to the English language page. Don'y forget with FON you are (legally) using part of somebodies home setup, so if you are parked up and there's not a building in site it's probably not worth looking. Also it's not guaranteed. I've been on an aire surrounded by houses. flat and offices and found every ISP known to man, but no SFR-FON!

With regard to 3, if you purchase a data sim, we use 1gig/1 month for about £10, AFAIK and in my experience, you have to activate it in the UK before you go. This is merely logging in to the web using the sim. I've no experience of 3 phone cards, only data. Between our WiFi booster and a 3 data sim in a WiFi modem, we are rarely without internet. We've found the 3 sim usually works whilst driving which can be useful.


Best of luck


Malcolm

 

[RicknSue]

Yes but that does entail going to Macdonalds. We managed to avoid the dreaded burger chain for most of our recent French trip apart from one occasion when we sat in the car park in the van and used the iBoost. I did eventually venture in for some coffees which proved to be a bit of a disaster. You now have to order your food and beverages using a giant touch screen. I ended up with something that I hadn't really expected, was luke warm and tasted of cardboard.. We should have made our own coffee. Wifi was brilliant though.

 

[2657]

Yes but that does entail going to Macdonalds. We managed to avoid the dreaded burger chain for most of our recent French trip apart from one occasion when we sat in the car park in the van and used the iBoost. I did eventually venture in for some coffees which proved to be a bit of a disaster. You now have to order your food and beverages using a giant touch screen. I ended up with something that I hadn't really expected, was luke warm and tasted of cardboard.. We should have made our own coffee. Wifi was brilliant though.

Don't think that is compulsory, it's been a few months since I last used McD but I usually just order at the counter, could be a problem at busy times but they are best avoided anyway........French lunchtime 11.45 until 13.00........manic, don't get between a Frenchman(person!) and their lunch

I now use either a French Orange PAYG sim or a UK 3 PAYG sim but in the past I have often used McD's wifi inside without purchasing anything, don't think the staff would care.

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[Gcs]

just came back from a 10 day trip in the Alps. 3 mifi worked pretty good all the way down through France, but then wouldn't work when we got on site, which was pretty remote!
Eventually worked out to search for networks manually, then select one that had 3G, worked perfectly after that.

 

[2657]

just came back from a 10 day trip in the Alps. 3 mifi worked pretty good all the way down through France, but then wouldn't work when we got on site, which was pretty remote!
Eventually worked out to search for networks manually, then select one that had 3G, worked perfectly after that.

I use a huawei mifi and have not worked out how to search for networks manually, if yours is the same........give us a clue........please!

 

[Cobweb]

... £15 per month all you can eat data.. 4g (or 3g) with Three..
Our router is on permanently..

Is this good in Europe ? You do not specify .

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[sdc77]

Yes.. Good in europe.. And apparently the USA.. Never tried it there though
(I did specify at the start of the post)

 

[M&A]

We bought a Huawei MiFi and a 3 data sim (10GB for £16.99 per month). We were able to get 3G for most of the two weeks we were in France and used it every day for navigating, finding our next stopover point, looking at campsites and Aires... I checked data usage at the end of the trip and found we had used less than 2GB of our allowance... Wouldn't travel without it now.

 

[Addie]

There is a guide to the Three deal - setup and usage - here which might be of interest:
Broken Link Removed

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[gazza280]

I have one of these and I can use upto 10 devices on it. That would include an ipad or any other device.
It is fantastic you can use it anywhere in France and Spain, and most of Europe too. In 138 counties in total
I have never been in an area where I have not been able to get a signal.
Also it is 4G enabled so if you are in an area that has 4g download speeds will be very fast.
15gb is a lot of data to use and I have never run out of data

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Devices/Huawei/E5573_4G_Mobile_Wi-Fi?memory=0&colour=White
http://support.three.co.uk/SRVS/CGI...lebroadband,varset_subcat=3884,Case=obj(4148)

 

[Dorwyn]

I must say for use on campsites to pick up the free wifi I find my ALFA AWUS036H very useful, I normally do not have to go to the reception office, but just use it from inside the van, sticking the unit on the van window with the supplied suction cup. It only cost about £15 and has proved well worth it.

 

[Microchip]

We are with 3 on our phones ....2gb data....2000 min 3 to 3.... 500 mins any other providers all you can eat txt "no picture though" all for £10 a month. on a 10 day trip we saved £55.75 by being with 3.
Bargin me thinks.
Keith..

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[Techno]

This looks a good deal

 

[Deleted member 29692]

This looks a good deal

The only thing to be careful of with them is whether or not the "all you can eat" data includes the "feel at home" countries.

If it does then, as you say, it's a good deal.

 

[Techno]

read the reviews
"Purchased this to put in my unlocked iPhone to use on a trip to England and France. It worked in both countries. The unlimited data, the text and minute allowance works in several countries. Just simply put sim in phone, and it's good to go. Great product, for an awesome price. Very happy with it. I will purchase again when traveling to the UK."

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