Prepaid Mobile Internet in France

Information on Prepaid 3G in Spain is here.

Prepaid Mobile Internet in France – an introduction

Regular readers of this site will know that I am on a warpath with finding the best pre-paid mobile internet plans for travellers heading to France (and Spain, Italy, Belgium and so on).

Note, much of the information below is for iPhones because iPhones are super-awesome, I have an iPhone, Android is for n00bs and who really cares about Honeycomb or BurntToast or whatever it’s called anyway. Ok, ok, I’m just kidding.

If anyone out there has Android info, please email it to me and I’ll add it in. Or, drop it in the comments.

You can see some of the other posts no this topic here:

• How You Can Easily Save Money on Your Mobile Phone When Roaming
• Save Hundreds and Get Unlimited Internet On Your iPhone in France
• Avoiding mobile phone international roaming bill shock
• Mobile data roaming for Australians going to France
• Mobile phone data roaming tips for France

Orange’s MobiCarte and Internet Max

One of my friends has started a very cool new business and asked me to test Orange’s Mobicarte prepaid SIM with an internet add-on (called “Internet Max”) for my 2011 trip (a review of his business will come after I return).

1. Orange’s prepaid service is called Mobicarte. For 9.90€ you get a SIM card with 5€ of credit.
2. You need to purchase credit (available in many supermarkets), I suggest buying 2 x 10€ of credit.
3. Add 1 month of unlimited internet for another 9€ under their InternetMax plan (Australian telcos are you taking notice?) – instructions below.
4. If you want native email (for example Mail.app on the iPhone) you need to add email for another 9€ a month.

But before you do…

Things to watch out for and be aware of

• You MUST disable 3G/data roaming BEFORE putting the SIM in to prevent your credit being used. This happened to me in 2009. I put a Mobiecarte SIM in, sent one Tweet on Twitter, boom, credit gone.
• Internet Max doesn’t include the use of email protocols (SMTP, POP, IMAP). Mail.app on iPhone uses IMAP/POP3, so if you want to use native email, you’ll need to subscribe to “Option Mail” for email (otherwise use Safari to access gmail) which is 9€ a month. Android’s Gmail app uses http, so, you’re sweet.
• MAKE SURE YOUR PHONE IS UNLOCKED FROM YOUR LOCAL NETWORK! (Yes, I had to yell).
• Before going crazy on the internet after subscribing to Internet Max, send a few tweets, or an email, then check your remaining credit. If it has gone down, then the Internet Max Option has not been enabled, so wait a day. If you are able to use Twitter, http email and so on, without depleting your prepaid credit balance, you should be good to go!
• The exact menu system may change from month to month, but you will be able to work it out.

The screen shots below show you what to expect when subscribing to Option Internet Max. The subscription and recharge process is SMS based – you send sms’s and the menu system changes. “Accueil” means welcome literally, but “Home” in the sense of this menu. “Precedent” means previous page.

The options

This tells you the Internet Max will be active in 48 hours

If in doubt, try to resubscribe, and you'll be told it's already activated

I think this says I have made the Internet Max option active on that date

Recharging is easy. You just dial #123# and recharge with the 14 digit pin on the recharge slip.

Choose number 1

If you see the below screen, choose number 1.

Choose number 1

Now you’ll enter your recharge code (14 digits).

14 digit recharge code

Where to Get Mobicarte

You can get Mobicarte in a store, or, on ebay. I’ve sourced mine off ebay. If the ebay link doesn’t work, just do a search on French SIM Card Mobicarte Orange on Ebay UK and FR.

How to Enable Tethering on iPhone on Orange Mobicarte

VeloNomad reader, coding warrior ninja and all round nice guy Ben, has informed me that tethering on Orange is some sort of nightmare. I confirmed this on my trip in 2011.

Since I am going to want tethering, rather than schlepp around at McDonalds and free Wi-Fi in order to bring you my uber-hilarious video upgrades, I starting doing some sniffing around on how to enable tethering on Orange France; here’s what I found.

• Easy Way: On your iPhone, AFTER enabling internet, navigate to http://tetheringiphone.blackra1n.org/help (via http://blackra1n.org/enable-tethering/). You will be able to choose a MobileConfig file which will enable tethering. If you choose to create your own MobileConfig (this will make sense once you’re on the site on your phone), choose apn = internet, password = password, username = iphone.
• Hard Way: this is only for those who know what they’re doing. Check this post and this post out. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I followed these instructions and modified the files but won’t be able to test until I get to France.

The easiest way is probably using the BlackRa1n hack. Be warned it may screw with tethering on your phone or other settings. I tried it for myself, and it made my data connection via the Mobicarte SIM go completely haywire (“No data connection”) which resolved itself of its own accord 1 day later.

WARNING/DISCLAIMER:
Following any of the instructions in the links in this post may invalidate your phone warranty or the data contract. I take zero responsibility for this (I can’t believe I have to say that but I do). If you hack your iPhone or phone via any of the methods above and something goes wrong, it’s totally your responsibility. Cool? Cool!

Make sure you try tethering first. Hacking your phone is a last resort.

More Information on Mobicarte

There are some great pages on Orange’s prepaid mobile internet below:

• Awesome Wiki that shows you EXACTLY what to buy, and how to activate, to get prepaid mobile internet in France.
• Info page for Orange Prepaid Mobile Internet
• Internet Options – click bottom far right panel, then “Mes Bons Plan Mobicarte” – you will need an account in order to subscribe to Internet from here (Orange France official site, in French)

The awesome thing about Orange is you can top up your prepaid SIM with enough credit for Internet, THEN activate it from your phone.

The very excellent Gerry P (check his blog out here) gave me the below info.

SFR (Vodafone) Prepaid Mobile Internet

Vodafone has a great plan where you get a prepaid card called “kit d’access”. You then get a specific recharge for Internet. The prepaid SIM costs €9.9 and you can add 20 days of Internet for €24 – pretty cheap! Read more about SFR’s prepaid mobile internet here.

We used this particular SFR deal in 2010. Two of our group got this working, but in my iPhone, the SIM card didn’t work (was corrupt).

Additionally, the recharge needs to be activated via calling a service centre and this is only in French.

Your best bet is to get the staff to help activate the data, however, some staff don’t even know about prepaid data; in Oloron-St-Marie in 2010, only one of the staff knew about it, and only after I explained to him in English what had to happen. The store in St Gaudens where my friend had his activated wrote a note in French for us to give to other stores. Even with this note, from one SFR employee to another, I still couldn’t get it activated, and even the store manager was clueless.

As you can see above, some SFR staff aren’t aware the product exists! If you luck out, my advice is to head to an Orange store and get the Mobicarte solution, which works a treat.

There are also mentions that Vodafone/SFR coverage is patchy, though I experienced very good Vodafone coverage from Strasbourg, into Switzerland, all through the Alpes via Chamonix, down via Alpe D’Huez to Mont Ventoux and also in the Pyrenees around Oloron-Ste-Marie, Pau, the Tourmalet and so on.

Wrap Up

Orange France sounds the best and most pain free way to get internet and email on your phone for about €27 for a month.