I have a number of “missions” to accomplish when I go to France. A few are related to my “French citizen abroad” status, like renewing my passport, while others are just for my own convenience, such as bringing my favourite French products back to Canada or getting my annual dental checkup in France (healthcare professionals are less pushy here!).
This year, the first mission was to buy two French SIM cards and prepaid plans to use our smartphones during the trip.
I rarely travel with my phone because I consider it an optional device and roaming features are very expensive in Canada. Last year, I purchased a CA$100 30-day Travel Pass with Virgin Mobile, my former Canadian provider, with 100 minutes and 1 GB of data included. It was convenient to be able to check my email from my phone, like I do at home—I’m still working when I’m on “holiday”…—but Virgin screwed it up and cut me off much earlier than agreed upon.
I switched to Videotron last fall and their roaming plan is prohibitively expensive so I decided to buy a French SIM card for the summer. I did some research and asked plenty of stupid questions on forums before the trip. “Can I just bring my Canadian phone and get a local SIM card? Is it technically doable?”
Apparently, yes and yes.
Oh, stop laughing. I’m really not into phones.
Feng and I packed our respective smartphones and decided to give it a shot in Paris. “Europe is light-years ahead of what North American can offer!” I promised. “Shouldn’t be too hard to find a cheap prepaid plan.”
The first thing we saw at Charles de Gaulle Airport was a Relay (newsstands) advertising cheap SIM cards and prepaid plans. “Wait a second,” I told Feng. “Gonna see if I can buy one…”
“Sold out,” I reported two seconds later.
Damn. Maybe it wouldn’t be that easy after all.
On my first afternoon in Paris, I compared offers, trying to figure out how it worked and what was included, but retailers couldn’t answer my basic questions—they sell SIM and prepaid cards like they sell magazines and cigarettes, period.
In the end, we visited a Bouygues store a block from the hotel and we found we seemed to be a good deal—a two-month prepaid card with 5 GB of data, unlimited text messages and calls in France for €40. The SIM card was an extra €15.
Deal.
A Bouygues employee helped us switch the SIM cards and twenty minutes later, we had two prepaid plans and French cellphone numbers.
Lesson learned:
- You do need to physically remove your Canadian (or foreign) SIM card and replace it with a French SIM card. Tip: bring an envelope or a small box to store the unused SIM card!
- You will get a French cellphone number, i.e. a ten-digit number starting with 06.
- Your phone is still the same, with all your apps, contacts, etc.
- The main providers are SFR, Orange and Bouygues. Other options include Lycamobile, Sosh, NRJ Mobile, etc.
- Prepaid cards can be bought in newsstands, online (if you have a French address) or in any cellphone provider stores (only the main ones have a brick-and-mortar store).
This turned out to be a very straightforward French mission. European telco providers are cheaper, more competitive and more reliable than in Canada and I’m using my smartphone more than in Ottawa.
However, there are two issues unsolved. First, getting a local SIM card is only manageable if you travel to one specific country. I can’t imagine buying a new SIM for each country if you spend two weeks in Europe, two weeks in Northern Africa, etc. Second, the two-factor authentication method many email or service providers seem to favour won’t work—if I’m locked out of my Gmail account, for instance, a PIN code will be sent to my Canadian phone number, not the temporary French one.
When my family visited me in France, my niece (who studied in Ireland) got them simcards that worked in the whole Europe. She got them for free from her school. My French phone got free roaming in most of the Europe countries.
I’ve heard about free roaming in the EU and I find it amazing! My phone doesn’t even work in Toronto 😆
Europe got rid of roaming (even for data) in June 2016, which is really convenient. It means I can keep my Portuguese SIM card and not have to get another SIM in the EU.
I have a dual-SIM Android phone, so I keep my Portuguese SIM card in it all the time for WhatsApp (which is tied to my Portuguese phone number) and just switch out the other card. I had a local SIM card in Indonesia, Philippines, and Namibia this year. In fact, I still have the Namibian card in the second slot and it’s turned off so I forget about it… until I reboot the phone and it reminds me!
Portuguese telecom is pretty cheap. I’m still on the same SIM card I got when I arrived nearly 6 years ago that was €10 (including data). I just pay month-to-month because it’s enough minutes and data not to convert to a plan. When my cousin and family were visiting from Canada, I got her a SIM card with 3GB data and 1000 minutes for €4! And here the SIM cards are free, it’s only the minutes and data that carry a cost.
On a totally different note, I only discovered recently that your RSS feed changed… no wonder I wasn’t getting any updates!
I wish we would get rid of roaming fees in North America too but it’s very unlikely anytime soon. Do you find you’re using your smartphone more than in Canada in Portugal? I did in France, mostly because everybody is texting and calling, it’s cheap after all! Data isn’t a big issue either.
I totally forgot about the dual-SIM feature! I remember reading about it and it sounds super convenient. I’ll keep it in Mind.
(On the side note, I keep on wondering if RSS feeds are dead… feedburner looks pretty dead…)
Or 07 now, depending of the carrier. The problem could arise if your phone in locked to a carrier, they like to do that on both sides of the pond.
I asked if “07” are used, apparently Bouygues doesn’t have them. I don’t know anyone with a 07 in French but it’s true most of my contacts got their numbers years ago.
I wonder how thing work for you previously when you were away from home?
If I traveled , say…KL or Bangkok, I bought 3-day-roaming plan from my provider.
When I was in Japan, I rent a Wifi modem that work in Japan up for 7 users. Rented modem is now common in my country, work in many countries, we can pick up in airport before we left and return upon arrival.
and ow, in case you travelled to my country (ha ha ha), you can’t use your Canadian phone here. New regulation from the government. -__-
I never bring my phone but I travel with my laptop and I make sure to stay in places where wi-fi is available, mostly for work. It’s common now, I can’t think of a city/country where I couldn’t connect easily. The last time we had issues was years ago, when Wi-Fi wasn’t as popular… maybe in 2008, 2009. Back then, we used to go to Internet cafés 😆
I had an 07 number. 🙂
It’s best to pay for the sim card in cash because I learned last summer that if you use a card to pay (I used a debit card), they store your card info and can charge you more if you accidentally use more call time, etc. At least that was my negative experience with Free.
Good point! We paid cash, I try to avoid sharing my banking info exactly for this reason.