Hi,
I’m mainly based in the UK and don’t have a French mobile number.
I want to set up Wifi at our house in France but all providers seem to ask for a French mobile number as part of the application process.
Is there a way around this? Can I, for example, just enter a made up number or am I likely to miss some vital set up code?
Any help/advice would be much appreciated!
Many thanks
Hello and welcome to Survive France.
Every French internet provider seems to want a French mobile number, I’m afraid. I don’t think there’s a way around it apart from getting a pay-as-you-go SIM next time you’re in France. With luck, you have a dual SIM phone so you’ll be able to have your UK and French numbers active at the same time.
As an alternative, you could consider Starlink. As it’s an American company I suspect that they won’t need a French mobile number. There are several happy users of Starlink here on Survive France. With luck, one of them will pop up and give details soon.
You can sign up to Lebara Fr for 6.99 Euros month, get 120G unlimited calls and texts and you get a French number. Renewable monthly by credit card
Confirmed, got friends with a french holiday home, Starlink and only uk mobile
You could get a sim card router and french sim card like LeClerc or the post office sans contract sim. That is what I do as mainly UK based. Better than giving Elon Musk your money.
Many thanks for the suggestions!
I’m trying to set up the wifi and mobile phone from the UK, so ideally I need a French mobile phone number that I can activate from the UK - is this possible?
Alternatively, can I just enter a made up french mobile number on the Wifi application form on the grounds that they will email me any important info? I’ve seen on other threads on here that people have made up numbers for deliveries but can’t find any specific info on wifi set up.
Many thanks!
One problem you might have with a made up number is if they (Internet provider?) need to send a verification code. But give it a go and let us know how you get on, might be useful info for others in your situation.
This — I bought the router from the UK and had Lebara Fr send the sim card to my French address. Simply set it up when you arrive.
Hello
I think you’ll need a genuine number as during set up they’ll probably text you a verification code.
That’s what happened for me anyway.
Luckily an English friend in France let me use his.
When you say “I want to set up WiFi” - what exactly do you mean?
What is the current situation and what are you hoping to achieve?
Quite - I certainly haven’t found one yet. Any attempt to order a regular SIM online (which seems to be the easiest option) falls into the catch-22 that you need an existing French mobile number to complete the process.
Unfortunately my Frankenbox/Unlimited Tesco mobile has (temporarily I hope) let me down so I have taken advantage of the fact that I’m here for a fortnight to order a PAYG SIM
The alternative is be to physically go to one of the (comparatively few) mobile phone stores and pixk a SIM up in person.
They might not email you and in any case putting in a fake number is likely to be counterproductive, at best they’ll think it’s a mistake, at worst fraud of some sort. And your made-up number might be a real person’s number and they are unlikely to be happy about it.