Getting a Mobile Phone

[france_bound]

Bonjour,

I'm moving to France in a few weeks and am curious if anyone can provide me with information around either purchasing a cell phone (a friend mentioned it was easy enough to purchase a 'pay as you go' phone at the airport quite cheaply) or how easy it might be for me to bring a mobile phone from Canada and just add a SIMM card to it.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

D

[Bevdeforges]

If you have a mobile phone that is tri- or quad- band, you should be able to add a SIMM card when you get here. The deal is that phones over here operate on different bands than those in North America. Many of the Japanese brand phones are multi-band, so if you already have one of those, you're all set.

I would tend to stay away from the phones for sale at the airports. There are tons of phone shops all over France - some are run by the mobile phone operators (Orange, Bouygues or SFR) while the big hypermarkets and electronic gadget stores all have mobile phone sections where you can compare the offers across a variety of plans.
Cheers,
Bev

[parsnips]

Hi,
If you don't make many calls you can take orange's "initial" deal, 7€ p.mth ,0.45€ p.min, with no minimum period of subscription. I believe if you have a suitable phone they will give you a SIMM card.

[frogblogger]

A minor point, anyone moving to remote parts, especially mountainous ones, would be well advised to check which operator (if any) works in that location before committing themselves to a 12 month contract! (Speaks from experience )

[hakuna]

Originally Posted by france_bound

Bonjour,

I'm moving to France in a few weeks and am curious if anyone can provide me with information around either purchasing a cell phone (a friend mentioned it was easy enough to purchase a 'pay as you go' phone at the airport quite cheaply) or how easy it might be for me to bring a mobile phone from Canada and just add a SIMM card to it.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

D

Try Sim4Travel but check that you have a compatible phone and that it is unblocked. I have used this company for the last two years with no probs but I am a very infrequent PAYG user. If you use your mobile a lot, there are lots to choose from. They have some good deals on at the moment.

[MichaelS]

I am not sure about Canada, but with phones from the US, they most likely will not work with SIM cards here (without modifications). My phone was tri-band that worked just fine here with my cingular SIM card, but like 99% of phones in the US, my phone was hard-wired to only work with Cingular. You can get your phone "un-locked" to work with other companies, but I do not know much about that.

I would try it before you buy. If you have a French friend, you could try his card in your phone or something.

Originally Posted by Bevdeforges

If you have a mobile phone that is tri- or quad- band, you should be able to add a SIMM card when you get here. The deal is that phones over here operate on different bands than those in North America. Many of the Japanese brand phones are multi-band, so if you already have one of those, you're all set.

I would tend to stay away from the phones for sale at the airports. There are tons of phone shops all over France - some are run by the mobile phone operators (Orange, Bouygues or SFR) while the big hypermarkets and electronic gadget stores all have mobile phone sections where you can compare the offers across a variety of plans.
Cheers,
Bev

[france_bound]

Thanks for the helpful replies concerning whether or not to bring and use a mobile phone from Canada to France. I think I will leave the phone here and purchase a cheap pay-as-you-go package as I am only staying for 6 months.
Cheers,
Damian