As I mentioned elsewhere, everything used to be so simple before the dreaded B.
BANG, birdstrike on the window next to my ear I rushed out to rescue the female thrush from Jules’ jaws and 20 minutes later, back to the phones. That story elsewhere soon.
I am going to England for a week in 9 days time and was going to take my French mobile with me, but just wanted to know what extra expense that will entail on sending and receiving calls (and texts), both from within England and from and to, France.
I have a spare phone, Fran’s really which she can no longer use, and wondered if it was an idea to buy a cheap sim in England to put in it. Worth it for 4 days or not?
Do a search for your service provider + ‘brochure tarifaire’. Skip to the international section and you should find the information you need.
In general it seems that French mobile networks are still including the UK in their list of European countries where roaming is at no extra cost (ie sending a text to from the UK to a French mobile, or indeed to a UK mobile, would cost the same as you would pay as if you were in France).
Thanks both of you, I am on a Leclerc RegloMobile card, costs a few euros a month and I top it up online now and again.
I’ll have a look at their website.
I’m on Reglo (9,95€ a month option). Just before my recent trip to the UK, Réglo told me that calls to/from UK and French numbers when roaming in the UK are now unlimited, and there is a 10G monthly data allowance.
Yes, but I am on the cheapest one, just under €5 as it is not a smartphone only needing calls and texts. Although I didn’t find it easy what I learn from what I read is that I can use it freely in England, as in France, for 18c/minute. That’ll do me, it is all I need. But I will make sure that it is well topped up before I go.
Not sure what that Pass-Monde is though, are you signed up to it and, if so, why?
I agree that the Reglo pricing guide (the very latest is attached below for convenience) is fairly impenetrable! Actually though I think you may be in luck…
My reading of the guide (effective from 15 June) is that you can make and receive calls and texts on an unlimited basis in the UK - regardless of whether or not you’re on the cheapie 4,95 rate, assuming your calls/texts are to/from UK, EU etc. There is no extra charge beyond your monthly amount.The only restrictions are twofold. One is based on ‘reasonable use’ (defined in immense detail in the guide but are most unlikely to impact on you for a short trip!). Two is (for the 4,95 tariff) you have a maximum of 5Go of data a month for internet usage whilst roaming in the UK. I’d have thought that a pretty useful amount of data for a short trip.
Passe Monde turns out to be a special deal for calls FROM France to the rest of the world, at cheaper rates. I’m not on Passe Monde as I never call outside of France except via WhatsApp (free obviously) or I use company messaging if I need to contact! UK banks, pension funds etc and ask them to call me.
Yes it does, thanks again, you have confirmed what I thought after seeing that panel you highlighted, though I had to scroll down a very long way to find zone 1.
But especially for Passe-Monde, I had no idea what that was (having made at least one call to UK) so steered well away. No use to me.
As far as data is concerned, with the kind of phone I’ve got, of no interest. It is supposed to receive MMS calls but one that was sent to me with pictures never opened.
I’ll be making short calls to friends and relatives for meeting up purposes in the short time I am there, so if I pump an extra 20 odd euros to my credit it’ll do me perhaps for some time after I get back.
Do you think Passe-Monde includes calls to UK mobiles of someone who is travelling in France? eg if we have a friend staying with us in France who is from the UK - would a call be included to their UK mobile phone?
Obviously I don’t know, having only just found out what it is, but if I understand @George1 correctly it is only to avoid higher charges, so short calls should not be a problem.
I’ve ploughed through the Pass Monde pricing information and I can’t find any specific reference to the (presumably fairly common) scenario you refer to. I can only assume that they would treat a call to a UK mobile in France as a call to the UK. In other words if you buy a Pass Monde it’s 18c per minute. Assuming they’re on normal roaming whilst in France it’s possibly cheaper for them to call you…
No mention in Reglo of how they deal with this, that I can find. I suspect they’d treat it as a call to the UK (18c per minute) if you subscribe to Pass Monde.
If the MMS message contains images or videos, it may require internet access. In such cases, MMS messages may count against your monthly data allowance if your phone allows it
When I received the message I was at home within a few feet of my Livebox, but nothing was shown. I did ask for the images to be sent with an email but was told they didn’t have internet access, so I just left it at that. It wasn’t important.
Exactly what phone are you using? I understood you to have a basic phone not a smart phone. If so, it is almost certainly 2G and cannot send or receive photos or videos by MMS which uses internet for which 2G is extremely slow and will fail. A 2G phone doesn’t normally have wifi so will not connect to a Livebox.
It is some years ago, a Doro, but I doubt more than 10. But it certainly isn’t dumb, it was bought specifically because of its loud tone and big numbers.
My wife has accumulated, over the years, a number of dumb phones and they are 2G. I have two Nokia 215/225 which are 3G which is being discontinued very soon… I’ve never seen a 4G version but would be happy to know about such models. However, surely any phone with a data service is not considered to be a dumb phone?
