Computer 'dongle' in France

[Janeus]

Accessing the internet on the move in France; at a reasonable price, what 'dongle' are people using, how much are they and more importantly what is a 'dongle' called in French? Thanks Janeus

[_Sarah_]

Not sure about cost of the internet itself, but there are ones with contracts and ones that are 'pay as you go', in which case it's a "carte rechargeable".

They are called dongle too, "un dongle", it's also called "un clé 3G":
Sony dongle WiFi UWABR100 - Accessoire TV vidéo à la Fnac
offres internet et 3G+ - Orange : internet + TV + tél + forfait 3G+

[Bevdeforges]

The clé 3G is an option - though my DH had one and found it pretty unreliable (not to mention rather expensive). Your mileage may vary.

There is apparently a way to use a smart-phone connection to link your laptop or netbook to the Internet. I have yet to try it, but if you have a mobile phone plan with Internet capabilities, it's worth looking into.
Cheers,
Bev

[rynd2it]

Originally Posted by Bevdeforges

The clé 3G is an option - though my DH had one and found it pretty unreliable (not to mention rather expensive). Your mileage may vary.

Cheers,
Bev

I have one of those as part of my Orange package - it was useful when nothing else was available. It's very slow, low bandwidth so trying to up- or download anything is very expensive and using Skype was impossible. The unit itself cost nothing but the charges are very high and you only get like 1 hour a month free.

Not recommended

[jamesOK]

If you have a modern phone which has 3G capabilities then you can use it as a personal wifi hotspot (also called tethering). I'm sure this depends on the phone but I know it is possible with iPhone 4.
With my Orange contract I have to pay extra use the phone as a modem. For 200MB it costs an extra €8 a month. For 1GB it costs €19 a month.

3G dongles are OK as long as you have an HSDPA connection. This is slightly faster than 3G and slowly becoming more available across France. All of the various operators will have a coverage map on their websites.