Hi Trying to apply for a Bougyues 4G box for our place in France, but their web form will not accept a UK mobile number, but must have this field populated. Any tips from anyone that has applied for this service?
We don;t really want a landline, but do need internet access. Are there any other solutions that people have good experience of.
All advice gratefully accepted
Andy
We have a friend from the UK who lives near us in France and he only had a UK mobile number and it is as you say, impossible to move forward without a French mobile number as Bouygues use it to send you SMS messages as well as having it as a contact number. The only way we were able to get him sorted was to provide one of our French mobile numbers (also with Bouygues). He did get a French mobile number and changed the account to show his new number.
We did manage to speak to someone at Bouygues Sales but initially this was through the chat facility on their website - in French of course! You could try that to explain your situation to see if they move on it…
You’ll also need a French bank account as they take the monthly fee from it by virement automatique (same as Direct Debit in the UK).
Have you checked your eligibility for the service on their website?
Hi Graham
Thanks for the comprehensive reply, appreciated. We have a French bank account, and all utilities etc. Seems maddening that you can choose ‘foreign’ as birth place, but it does adjust for it. I will try the chat option in the morning. Tried to check eligibility but does not recognise the address, and we do not have a live landline installed. Finding it hard to move it forward from UK. Do you know of any others offering a 4G solution. We have a motorhome and have a 4G router installed with a small roof antenna, it works well, tempted to try that as an interim solution, but who knows what will happen after December…
Free and Orange have similar offerings but restricted on the amount of data. Bouygues is the best option at illimitée.
Is your address in a small hamlet? If so, you might need to compliment the address with lieu-dit. If you have a neighbour with a phone you could use their number or the number of the mairie (or some other firm) if it is close to where you are.
Put in a random number… 06 88 88 88 88 and see if that works. after all they’re no going to be calling you on it 
unlike an eamail address which they may verify.
The last time I tried that on a website (looking for a gardener) it immediately wanted to send an SMS 
I too don’t think that will work John. The box is sent to a collection point and they send an SMS to advise its despatch and arrival…
Foiled again…
There must be a way! As even if I was in France I still would only have uk mobile. Gave up on the French mobile when roaming became part of the package.
Sometimes it easier to swim with the tide rather than against it. For the sake of few euro a month. You will probably have this over and over. Banks often want a French number for your security codes. And so on.F
Dont forget cheap roaming ends soon.
A Free SIM only costs 2 euro a month. We had one for years before we moved here permanently. Nobody, shops, EDfF, restos, etc. wanted to call us back on foreign number.
I don’t think that’s a given - the right to free roaming will end certainly, but subscribers have got used to it so in practice it might be difficult for UK operators to remove.
Besides most operators currently offer free roaming outside the EU - Three, for instance have deals for 71 destinations, only 27 of which are in the EU.