WiFi dongle in France offer (1 Viewer)

Swift

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I am in France for a month, I usually use my unlocked 3 mifi dongle and buy a French Orange SIM card and use their Mobicarte pay as you go system, but this time I had a problem connecting the 3 dongle to our iPads. To overcome the problem I just bought an French Orange mifi dongle (Clie) for 89 Euro's, all you have to do is buy a top up (recharge) Mobicarte card from most supermarkets or Orange store, they cost:-

€5 for 75mb valid for 7 days
€10 for 150mb valid for 15 days
€15 for 225mb valid for 1mth
€25 for 450mb valid for 2mth (+€5 bonus credit)
€35 for 675mb valid for 3mth (+€10 bonus credit)
€50 for 975mb valid for 4mth (+€15 bonus credit)
€75 for 1500mb valid for 4mth (+€25 bonus credit)
€100 for 2250mb valid for 5mth (+€50 bonus credit)

All you do is ring a freephone number, enter your dongle phone number then enter the top up card number and off you go, the beauty of the dongle is that 6 computers can use it at the same time, so we have been able to have our iPhones and iPads wifi'd up continuously, obviously within the 30mtr range of the dongle, or put it in your pocket and take it with you, a lot cheaper than my roaming £1 a mb cost on O2 :Eeek:

So when I get back, if anyone wants to borrow the dongle for a small donation to try and recoup the cost of it I am willing to share it, I will give full details of what you do to top it up, and I will take some pictures of the top up card systems in the shops :thumb:

It takes the worry away from scary bills for data on return to the UK plus let's you surf the Internet whilst travelling to find sites or other googling (not whilst driving though ::bigsmile: don't want any accidents)

So if anyone is interested let me know, I would have to post it out signed for delivery and same for return to protect all concerned.

Very easy to use, charge it up, or keep it plugged into a 12v socket, ensure credit on it, it will then emit a wifi signal for 30mtrs surrounding it, link your phone or iPad or computer to the wifi signal, enter the password and off you go :thumb:

Hope it helps someone, if anyone is going imminently I am happy to buy a top up card here in advance for you so you are ready to connect when arriving in France :thumb:
 
Feb 27, 2011
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This is something I have been looking at for a few months now in preparation for my trip.

I found this company
Link Removed

its £49 per month (discounts for more than one month) which includes 3GB of data. You can go over this and they don't disconnect you but the connection will get progressively slower.

I bought an unlocked MiFi box which I will plug this into...

Not sure if this deal is better but it is for me as I am a heavy user. In the uk I use 7GB a week usually. This will drop quite a lot when I am travelling though.
 
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Swift

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Please don't mistake a USB dongle with a mifi dongle which gives a wifi zone for up to 6 computers to connect to at the same time, I found this of great use with my iPhone as I turned off data roaming and all emails appear via the wifi link to the French dongle :thumb:

If you only have a laptop then by all means use a USB dongle, but for the more advanced use with wifi phones and iPads e.t.c. Mifi seems to be the best to secure against unwanted mega bills when you get home. The luxury of being able to do a google search on your phone whilst on the move or che.ck you location on google maps/earth is a great asset :thumb:

If anyone has any questions let me know as I am still here and can get any info for you, or if you want your own Orange dongle buy one for you here :thumb:

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Sep 28, 2010
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Mifi Dongles confused

Mo and I are with luck planning to go on a long tour of Europe, planned for 2 years but who knows what might happen? Do not know what to do for the best as regards internet access as we intend to go to various countrys. Plan to stay in Austria for the ski season. Other than that do not know which route we will take. Any Ideas what would be best for us internet wise
Thanks

Richard & Mo
 

lesleyjean

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Jun 21, 2008
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Hi Swift, I have just bought an unlocked 3 mifi and was hoping to use it when we go to France and Spain in October.
What do you think the problem was trying to connect iPads etc using French data sim cards?

Really will be disappointed if I cannot use mine whilst abroad:cry:

Lesley

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Douglas

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Aug 22, 2008
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I am in France for a month, I usually use my unlocked 3 mifi dongle and buy a French Orange SIM card and use their Mobicarte pay as you go system, but this time I had a problem connecting the 3 dongle to our iPads. To overcome the problem I just bought an French Orange mifi dongle (Clie) for 89 Euro's, all you have to do is buy a top up (recharge) Mobicarte card from most supermarkets or Orange store, they cost:-

€5 for 75mb valid for 7 days
€10 for 150mb valid for 15 days
€15 for 225mb valid for 1mth
€25 for 450mb valid for 2mth (+€5 bonus credit)
€35 for 675mb valid for 3mth (+€10 bonus credit)
€50 for 975mb valid for 4mth (+€15 bonus credit)
€75 for 1500mb valid for 4mth (+€25 bonus credit)
€100 for 2250mb valid for 5mth (+€50 bonus credit)

To put these prices into context, In the UK I pay Three.co £11.00 for 5Gb for 1 month.

At the nearest equivalent E15.00 at 225 Mb. That's means I get 22.75 times more data for the same money in the UK.

Hence I always use a free wifi link when in France.

Doug...
 

Welsh girl

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Hi Swift. Got a Mifi (3) but unable to find anyone to unlock. Isle of Wight

Might have to send it away.I.O.W notorious for not being able to do stuff like that.if you google it.I lived, on, I.O.W for 10 years and Tez was brought up there.
 
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Swift

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To put it into context my phone data would cost £1 a mb in France, hence the reason I bought the mifi dongle. If you have limited means then by all means use free wifi spots, luckily I am able to afford €15 for a holiday that gives me the freedom to connect wherever, subject of course to a signal. I would spend more in fuel diverting to free wifi zones, wasting my time and also wasting fuel and time trying to find things I can find easily on google en route, so absolutely no comparison between free and mifi.

I would be extremely concerned about a motorhome user who can't afford a few euros for wifi in their van, but I am on a campsite where sone people sit in the dark all evening to save paying for power, luckily my pension enables me to live a somewhat civilised life with a bulb or two :ROFLMAO:

As for my 3 unlocked dongle not working, I just don't know, it worked with the laptop last year and this but would not connect to the iPhones or iPad, you have to ensure you have all the Orange settings set correctly which I did, but something stopped it, after already having bought the top up card and sim I was a bit stuffed so bit the bullet and bought an French Orange mifi dongle, as I said in the previous post, if I can recoup some of the €89 euro cost of it by loaning it to people for a donation we can all benefit, it already seems it will be in use by o member from late Oct for 10 weeks, so get your order in quickly ::bigsmile:

I am not pushing borrowing mine so can buy another here and bring it home for anyone who wants one or even buy and bring back top up cards, but let me know by the weekend :thumb:

I can assure you all possible ways and means to get the unlocked 3 dongle were tried by myself and Orange before forking out an extra €89.

Could people please let me know what they feel would be a fair donation for use of the dongle, say per week, 2 weeks and month and more, I want to make it fair, cost should exclude the signed for delivery each way which I guess would only be a couple of quid each way :thumb:

If anyone has any questions please ask,

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WynandJean

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Hi Swift, good to hear from you again after all this time. I have an ongoing problem with Internet access when in France :-
Link Removed

so am finding this matter quite interesting. I already have an unlocked dongle (not mifi) so could I just buy a SIM card for it which I could top up (at a reasonable cost) as I need it, (including lengthy periods without use)?

Wyn
 
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Swift

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Hi Swift. Got a Mifi (3) but unable to find anyone to unlock. Isle of Wight

3 will give you an unlock code for a fee, or check on eBay where you can pay to get the unlock code cheaper.

Beware there is more to just unlocking it, you need to enter the correct settings for the new provider and that can be difficult in a foreign language :winky:
 
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Swift

Banned
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Hi Swift, good to hear from you again after all this time. I have an ongoing problem with Internet access when in France :-
Link Removed

so am finding this matter quite interesting. I already have an unlocked dongle (not mifi) so could I just buy a SIM card for it which I could top up (at a reasonable cost) as I need it, (including lengthy periods without use)?

Wyn


As I said in another post, you can use an unlocked dongle but need the settings for the new provider, I got these for mine last year and it was a real pain as I was doing everything in French. I do now have the settings for Orange so could help, but this year my unlocked dongle would not work, it had the correct settings and was connected to Orange but the iPads and phone connected then disconnected, there was a massive queue in the Orange shop so I bit the bullet and bought the mifi dongle, the beauty of mifi is that my iPhone and wife's blackberry collect all the instant emails from it so we have both turned of our phones roaming data which would cost £1 a minute :Eeek:

If you are a frequent traveller to France then I would buy your own, I didn't check the price of the USB ones but can if you want as I now know the staff in the Orange shop. If anyone wants a French Orange mifi dongle (or USB if we get a price) I am happy to bring them home, remember you also need an Orange sim for €8 or 9 and buy an initial top up card. When you first buy a dongle you get the 1st 24hrs of unlimited Internet free at the moment.

Another thing to be carefulmof is that Windows on the computers are doing loads of updates at the moment, the last thing youbwant to domis use all your allowance on that, so cancel auto updates :thumb:

Well there you go, happy to help, with sims, dongles or whatever, because it can be a nightmare if you don't know the system. Top up cards are available everywhere, you buybthem and the till creates the code, you then have whatever time as noted in my list to use the data from date of purchse. Another important point is that the sim is only valid for 6 Mths after the last top up has ended (not the data but the time limit since purchase), so on a €35 top up you have 3mths to use it, then the sim will stay active for another 6mths making a total of 9mths then go dead, so I have bought a €10 euro top up to put on in 6 Mths, the reason being that a top up code must be used within 6mths. So I will load the €10 in January just before it's 6mths expires, I will get 1mth credit and then 6 more months of sim life, by that time I will be back here for next summer and re top up, if not before :thumb:

Sorry to make it confusing but try working all that out in French :Eeek:

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Rue du Quai

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French Orange mifi dongle

Hi,

We are going to be staying in France over Christmas 2012 and need internet access. My husband uses a laptop and I will be taking my ipad. I went to the 3 shop to buy a mifi dongle thingy but was told I wouldn't be able to use it in France because it is locked. Since then I have been searching to find a solution and hit on this chain.

Please tell me where I can purchase a French Orange mifi dongle ( I would like to buy it on line before we go as we arrive on Christmas Eve and don't want to start doing this kind of search in Dinan, St Malo etc). I also want to purchase a French sim card too!

Any help would be very much appreciated!!:Smile:
 
Last edited:
May 8, 2011
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Hi,

We are going to be staying in France over Christmas 2012 and need internet access. My husband uses a laptop and I will be taking my ipad. I went to the 3 shop to buy a mifi dongle thingy but was told I wouldn't be able to use it in France because it is locked. Since then I have been searching to find a solution and hit on this chain.

Please tell me where I can purchase a French Orange mifi dongle ( I would like to buy it on line before we go as we arrive on Christmas Eve and don't want to start doing this kind of search in Dinan, St Malo etc). I also want to purchase a French sim card too!

Any help would be very much appreciated!!:Smile:

I have a 3 mifi dongle thingy that came with 3gb and lasts for three months, however you cant use this data package abroad. However from their website I purchased £20s worth of foreign data that I have used recently in France. Trouble is it doesn't last long and used up the £20 within a couple of weeks and only looking at emails, etc.
 

callumwa

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Hi,

We are going to be staying in France over Christmas 2012 and need internet access. My husband uses a laptop and I will be taking my ipad. I went to the 3 shop to buy a mifi dongle thingy but was told I wouldn't be able to use it in France because it is locked. Since then I have been searching to find a solution and hit on this chain.

Please tell me where I can purchase a French Orange mifi dongle ( I would like to buy it on line before we go as we arrive on Christmas Eve and don't want to start doing this kind of search in Dinan, St Malo etc). I also want to purchase a French sim card too!

Any help would be very much appreciated!!:Smile:



Take note that this thread originated in AUG 2011.........!:Eeek:

A lot changes in the mobile business in 15 months, tariffs, rates, allowances etc... so I would not take too much notice of what was available 15 months ago. Plans and costs change from month to month never mind 15 months.

France has been and still is on of the most expensive countries in Europe for mobile internet.

That's why I have a separate UK Vodafone sim which I use whilst in France. For £3 per day I have access to my full UK home plan, meaning, unlimited sms, free minutes for calls and free internet within my monthly allowances, and no charge for receiving calls whilst roaming.

Link Removed

Or on a UK Vodafone PAYG you can have 25 mb of internet on your phone for £2 per day which is enough to check e-mails etc.

Link Removed



Ok if you were to use it every day, it would be expensive, but in between using free wifi hotspots, camp site wifi etc, it lets me keep in touch for a modest sum....:thumb::thumb:

ps; please note these do not allow tethering, only mobile net on your phone.

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oldun

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The problem I have with getting onto the net in Europe is that most campsites and free camping areas are in the sticks so quite often connection is not possible via any means.

I rely mostly on finding campsites, shops etc with free wifi. I have not found connection via the phone to be either useful or affordable.
 

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