Internet SIM options for our French Summer trip

barryd

barryd

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I know there are several threads on this but I thought I would start my own for our specific needs.

We are heavy internet users and both our mobiles are currently 250gb Talkmobile (Vodafone network) contracts. Talkmobile only allow 5gb of roaming and its also limited to 61 days so very restrictive.

As we will only be in France for the full 90 days my thoughts were to either purchase a single Lebara (SFR) sim and stick it in a router (Which router?) or as they appear to be cheap as chips just purchase 2 x 250gb 30 days sims, one for each of our phones and then divert our main Talkmobile numbers to whatever the Lebara sim numbers are. Im not sure if you need to be in the UK to do a divert though, hopefully not.

They seem too good to be true these deals though. €7.99 for 250gb!

No Contract Sim Card with Lebara Mobile -

Our best deails on No Contract Sim Card. Unlimited calls and SMS to France + unlimited calls to 43 destinations + gigas
www.lebara.fr www.lebara.fr

How easy is it to pick up and install a Lebara sim and get it activated once in France and where from? Im hoping I can find a friendly "phone shop" that will do it for us in case its all in French :D

Open to suggestions on the best way forward so any advice appreciated.
 
Lenny HB said:
I thought Lebara was only 30G roaming.
In France often use Reglo from E. Leclerc currently €9.80 for 200GB.
Click to expand...

Useful to know about Reglo thanks. Do you just pick them up from E. Leclerc then and stick them in the phone? Is it fairly straight forward to activate them? I assumed as regards the Lebara as it would also be purchased in France it would be a French sim so no roaming required.
 
Have you considered starlink? It's NOT cheap but if you're heavy users like we we are, its so much easier than Sims and then trying to get a signal. We use ours for TV, laptops, ipad and phones.

A 12v option makes it viable off grid, we use around 2.5 - 3 amps per hour, which with a bit of solar, the battery is easily topped up!

You are restricted now though to 2 months outside your registered country - so registering in the EU might be an option as you just need to use in the country of registration for it to start the 2 month countdown again, I believe.

Hopefully I will be able to register an additional one I brought with us in France on our way back through in a couple of weeks ..
 
barryd said:
Useful to know about Reglo thanks. Do you just pick them up from E. Leclerc then and stick them in the phone? Is it fairly straight forward to activate them? I assumed as regards the Lebara as it would also be purchased in France it would be a French sim so no roaming required.
Click to expand...
French Lebara great in France (they might allow roaming to other EU - need to check). Put it in the phone or a MiFi router - but you won’t have your UK phone number. Stick to internet. UK Lebara needs to be activated in the UK and they get stroppy after 60 days. Their rule is ‘use’ more abroad than in UK in any 120- day period (they have consistently refused to answer my query if ‘use’ is defined by days or by GB downloaded).

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barryd said:
Useful to know about Reglo thanks. Do you just pick them up from E. Leclerc then and stick them in the phone? Is it fairly straight forward to activate them? I assumed as regards the Lebara as it would also be purchased in France it would be a French sim so no roaming required.
Click to expand...
You have to go to Customer services need your passport and an address (nearest Aire will do) then they activate it for you.
Used to get 5GB roaming but we used 10GB before our data ran out.
 
We used a Reglo sim in France. Took a spare phone with me to the shop and they installed/activated it. I then transferred it to our mifi and it worked perfectly.
To purchase the sim you need to go to a (large) leClerc and find their tv/phone shop - often situated in the mall before entering the supermarket part. You will need to take a passport.
 
Thanks guys. Both our phones are duel SIM so my thoughts were to just put the French Lebara or Reglo sim in our second slots. I had a long chat online with Talkmobile this morning as my plan was to once in France divert my UK number to the new French one but Talkmobile say you can only do a divert to another UK number. I'm not sure I believe that.

My concern was that after 61 days Talkmobile consider this "Permanent roaming" (the Permanent Roamer Policy it is: If you roam in any Inclusive Roaming destination for 61 or more days in a 120 day period (“Permanently Roaming”) you may incur additional roaming charges. We’ll send you a warning email or text to let you know. If after 14 days from sending you a warning message you continue to use Inclusive Roaming, you’ll be charged a surcharge of £7 per week for as long as you are Permanently Roaming.)"

If it wont divert I dont suppose it matters. Incoming calls will still come into my main sim but ill turn mobile data off on that one and turn it on for the French one. It looks like I might incur some additional charges at the backend of the trip from TM, so be it.

The question that keeps cropping up though is this issue of having a French address. I do know someone who says they were refused when just providing a campsite address. I guess it depends on who you deal with on the day. I do have a friend who lives in France. Could I use his address and what is required for documentation?
 
MisterB said:
Have you considered starlink? It's NOT cheap but if you're heavy users like we we are, its so much easier than Sims and then trying to get a signal. We use ours for TV, laptops, ipad and phones.

A 12v option makes it viable off grid, we use around 2.5 - 3 amps per hour, which with a bit of solar, the battery is easily topped up!

You are restricted now though to 2 months outside your registered country - so registering in the EU might be an option as you just need to use in the country of registration for it to start the 2 month countdown again, I believe.

Hopefully I will be able to register an additional one I brought with us in France on our way back through in a couple of weeks ..
Click to expand...

Not really interested in Starlink but thanks for the suggestion. I may purchase a cheap router though.
 
dalspa said:
We used a Reglo sim in France. Took a spare phone with me to the shop and they installed/activated it. I then transferred it to our mifi and it worked perfectly.
To purchase the sim you need to go to a (large) leClerc and find their tv/phone shop - often situated in the mall before entering the supermarket part. You will need to take a passport.
Click to expand...

Thanks. What MiFi unit do you have and do you find it has better signal than a standard mobile phone?

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Lenny HB said:
You have to go to Customer services need your passport and an address (nearest Aire will do) then they activate it for you.
Used to get 5GB roaming but we used 10GB before our data ran out.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I guess I wont need any roaming for the French sim as we will not be leaving France for the 90 days. So I presume each of us will get the 200gb per month while we keep it topped up every 30 days? This might be the best option if its that easy. Not sure where I would pick up the Lebara sim. Whats the coverage like in rural France?
 
This site contains affiliate links for which MHF may be compensated.
This site contains affiliate links for which MHF may be compensated.
barryd said:
Thanks. What MiFi unit do you have and do you find it has better signal than a standard mobile phone?
Click to expand...
Barry,
Ours is a HUAWEI E5577C which, we seemed to get a better signal than through a phone. Having the Reglo sim in the mifi (or spare phone) then enables our phones to use our UK sims to be used with roaming data when away from the mifi, but using the Reglo data when back at the van. We are not heavy data users but the Reglo sim can be bought with varying data. The sim still worked when back home until the month was up. I think up to 10 items can be connected to the mifi.
You must be getting excited to be going to France again after a few years stuck in the UK, and in Hank2.
 
dalspa said:
Barry,
Ours is a HUAWEI E5577C which, we seemed to get a better signal than through a phone. Having the Reglo sim in the mifi (or spare phone) then enables our phones to use our UK sims to be used with roaming data when away from the mifi, but using the Reglo data when back at the van. We are not heavy data users but the Reglo sim can be bought with varying data. The sim still worked when back home until the month was up. I think up to 10 items can be connected to the mifi.
You must be getting excited to be going to France again after a few years stuck in the UK, and in Hank2.
Click to expand...

Thanks. They seem cheap enough. However looking at SFR Coverage across where we are going Im not sure we will need to bother with a router. Just using our own hotspots would probably work fine. I might get one anyway though as it covers all bases. Can you use it while its plugged into a USB charger?

Yes its been a while since we were across the water and it will be great to get back to France. Lots to do before then but I want to get this nailed down as internet is crucial.

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S
barryd said:
Thanks

Which one did you go for? There seems to be lots of option on that page.
Click to expand...
Sorry, thought I’d isolated it! Just charges like a mobile phone. Can use whilst charging.

ZTE U10S Pro Blue, 4G+LTE Mobile Wi-Fi 6, unlocked low-cost portable travel WiFi, connects 32 Devices, 3000mAh 10hr Battery life, roams on all world networks, no configuration required​

 
barryd said:
Thanks. What MiFi unit do you have and do you find it has better signal than a standard mobile phone?
Click to expand...
We have used a fairly basic Huawei E5577 for years with currently a Smarty sim which most of the time has been perfectly good to download Netflix series/films, player etc in the EU. As our oyster has been flakey we have now just had installed a Motorhome wifi 5g Now unit on the roof but haven't tried it as yet. Will look to buy a Lebara sim. my understanding is they supply 2 sims with every order so if you run out of fair usage,30gb, (the smarty is only 12GB EU) you can stop pause one sim and insert/commission the other sim. Not sure we will ever use 30gb in a couple of months away as too busy drinking Aperol spritz to bother with tv!
our iPhones are pretty poor receiving data compared with the Mifi.
 
barryd said:
Thanks. They seem cheap enough. However looking at SFR Coverage across where we are going Im not sure we will need to bother with a router. Just using our own hotspots would probably work fine. I might get one anyway though as it covers all bases. Can you use it while its plugged into a USB charger?

Yes its been a while since we were across the water and it will be great to get back to France. Lots to do before then but I want to get this nailed down as internet is crucial.
Click to expand...
Yes you can use it when plugged into usb. They have a battery so you can take it when out for the day so that if your phone signal is poor you have the option of the mifi.
 
dalspa said:
Yes you can use it when plugged into usb. They have a battery so you can take it when out for the day so that if your phone signal is poor you have the option of the mifi.
Click to expand...

Hadn't thought of that. Im having trouble with my phone at the moment as it seems to struggle to connect to the internet on 4g even when there is a good signal. It seems to happen if its been on wifi and a restart often fixes it. Its one of those problems I have been meaning to get around to sorting and never have. So if it plays up while away a mifi unit like yours might be a good bet.
 
Won’t help you but might help others who have an EE broadband contract. EE offer a £16pm 30 day rolling sim only (£10 if only UK coverage needed). Unlimited data for use across the EU. Just upgraded the wife’s deal in prep to head off over Easter. No I don’t work for them😃

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Apacheman said:
Won’t help you but might help others who have an EE broadband contract. EE offer a £16pm 30 day rolling sim only (£10 if only UK coverage needed). Unlimited data for use across the EU. Just upgraded the wife’s deal in prep to head off over Easter. No I don’t work for them😃
Click to expand...
Looks very good but only for broadband customers?
 
Last edited:
kev54 said:
We used this last year and it was great. https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/ZTE/page/64D1F8BD-054B-49CD-BFFD-79CBB3967E5F?tag=mhf04-21
Much better / faster than using the phone as a hotspot - for our needs (internet, maps, video calls, some, but not a lot of streaming TV) The ones with aerials are better, of course - but more expensive, of course
Click to expand...

How bad has your hotspot been for you to state a mifi is so much better? We have been and France/Spain/Portugal doing a lot of TV streaming off our hotspot and no glitches with streaming at all - even with BBC which tends to be the most difficult to stream. I cannot see what benefit a mifi unit could be over our present speed.
 
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I am gobsmacked by the colossal amount of data some use. I find even a couple of hours of youtube etc uses a lot less than 1Gb.
Our TV which is rarely used is only 19" so no point in resolution above 720p.
I have a 12Gb sim in a mifi in the van for a camera and remote monitoring of temperature and that uses only a couple of Gb a month. We have 30Gb in each of our phones and also in one tablet and never run short of data.
Using a UK sim means we could watch UK TV if for some bizarre reason we wanted to.
 
Trevor Wbm said:
Just searched for the best SIM, in France in French, and got this:

Click to expand...
The only problem with Labara in France is that they have few shops and only post to addresses within France.
Better bet is Reglo available in Leclerc hypermarket. https://www.reglomobile.fr/
 
I've used Free in France. Good deal at €20 for 350Gb (or €9 for 120Gb)
mobile.free.fr

Forfait mobile Free sans engagement : Internet 5G illimité

Un réseau mobile Free 4G/5G de qualité présent dans tous les départements de France metrop. Des prix avantageux. Pour toute la famille.
mobile.free.fr mobile.free.fr

A mifi isn't going to be any/much better than a phone unless you have an antenna on the roof connected to it.
 
wfdTamar said:
I've used Free in France. Good deal at €20 for 350Gb (or €9 for 120Gb)
mobile.free.fr

Forfait mobile Free sans engagement : Internet 5G illimité

Un réseau mobile Free 4G/5G de qualité présent dans tous les départements de France metrop. Des prix avantageux. Pour toute la famille.
mobile.free.fr mobile.free.fr

A mifi isn't going to be any/much better than a phone unless you have an antenna on the roof connected to it.
Click to expand...
Are iPhone is nowhere as good as the Mifi unit for getting a signal and streaming.
 
Free do a very good deal, 30 days with a huge data 300gb or something like that, used it last year. Buy from a Free shop vending machine. Campsite address is fine, they didn't care.

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