Phone service

Since I arrived in France back in April, I've been using a sort of pay as you go plan--you buy 15 or 20 euros worth at a time--with France Orange. I have an unlocked iPhone. The arrangement isn't working very well though. I can't get service in my apartment so in order to make a call I must walk to the end of the street. Since my French is limited, it is also difficult to re-charge on line -- I don't understand the instructions. Recharging then involves going to a tabac etc. and is inconvenient and proving to be quite expensive.


Can anyone recommend a service? I don't make or receive a lot of calls within France, although it's becoming more necessary lately. Mostly I just want a simple plan for my iPhone that I can use in France. I don't have a land line, would prefer just to use the iPhone. Thanks in advance.

Hi Sheila, the problem is that I'm renting at the moment and the rent includes WIFI etc., so I don't really want to pay for that. The place also isn't set up for TV--no satellite dish etc. The most useful thing I've found so far is Skype, which lets me call to the States, etc., but doesn't really work in all situations.

Hi Janice. I know you say you don't want a landline but do you have broadband? We have a package from Orange, which gives us phone, broadband (with WIFI), TV and mobile. They gave me a SIM for my iPhone. Like you, mobile doesn't really work in the house so I can use the WIFI on the iPhone to connect to broadband, and use apps like WhatsApp and Viber for messages and calls. The total cost of this package is around €45 per month and includes free calls in France and to various other countries (from the landline only). I call Ireland (the kids are all living there) and also the UK and Germany.

Janice, have a look at Free. we only use our mobiles for the odd emergency, have changed to Free & pay 2euro each per month for 2hrs worth of calls. France only. They use the Orange network so coverage is good.