Using Mobile Phones for internal calls in France?

Firstly I must say I'm a newbie to this group so must apologise for the
subject, which I feel sure must have been discussed in the past -
possibly many times.

My query is a simple one but one which staff in mobile phone shops seem
to know but little about.

My wife and I are retired so have no day to day use for a mobile. We
merely keep a 'Pay as you go' phone in case of emergencies. However,
because we live in Surrey visits to France are very easy for us. We
prefer to roam (rather than pre-booking accommodation) so it would be
useful to be able, on our journey, to phone ahead enquiring after
accommodation.

Whilst all mobiles are capable of making calls to the UK from France I
have so far not received reliable advice on the ability to phone a
French number whilst in France. All I have been told is "one has to
make special arrangements - whatever that might mean. Furthermore, all
of the literature from the mobile phone networks seems to remain silent
on this point.

So, if anybody can give me a few facts based on their experience, I
really would be most grateful.

Thanks

Derek
(Oxshott, Surrey, UK)

"DCBeverstone" wrote in message
oups.com...
Firstly I must say I'm a newbie to this group so must apologise for the
subject, which I feel sure must have been discussed in the past -
possibly many times.

My query is a simple one but one which staff in mobile phone shops seem
to know but little about.

My wife and I are retired so have no day to day use for a mobile. We
merely keep a 'Pay as you go' phone in case of emergencies. However,
because we live in Surrey visits to France are very easy for us. We
prefer to roam (rather than pre-booking accommodation) so it would be
useful to be able, on our journey, to phone ahead enquiring after
accommodation.

Whilst all mobiles are capable of making calls to the UK from France I
have so far not received reliable advice on the ability to phone a
French number whilst in France. All I have been told is "one has to
make special arrangements - whatever that might mean. Furthermore, all
of the literature from the mobile phone networks seems to remain silent
on this point.

So, if anybody can give me a few facts based on their experience, I
really would be most grateful.

Thanks

Derek
(Oxshott, Surrey, UK)


Derek, all I can say is that we are on Vodafone Pay As You Go, and in Paris
last September, I switched on the phone and after a slight delay it picked
up a French network (can't remember the name) and we were able to phone for
our Airpoprt transfer car. I did enquire before we went, at the local
Vodafone shop, and it all worked as they said it would.

Hope this helps

Pat Macguire

DCBeverstone wrote:
Firstly I must say I'm a newbie to this group so must apologise for
the subject, which I feel sure must have been discussed in the past
- possibly many times.

My query is a simple one but one which staff in mobile phone shops
seem to know but little about.

My wife and I are retired so have no day to day use for a mobile.
We merely keep a 'Pay as you go' phone in case of emergencies.
However, because we live in Surrey visits to France are very easy
for us. We prefer to roam (rather than pre-booking accommodation)
so it would be useful to be able, on our journey, to phone ahead
enquiring after accommodation.

Whilst all mobiles are capable of making calls to the UK from
France I have so far not received reliable advice on the ability to
phone a French number whilst in France. All I have been told is
"one has to make special arrangements - whatever that might mean.
Furthermore, all of the literature from the mobile phone networks
seems to remain silent on this point.

So, if anybody can give me a few facts based on their experience, I
really would be most grateful.

On some networks, roaming (i.e. using a mobile outside its home country)
is switched off by default, and has to be switched on before your first
trip abroad. A simple call to your network's customer service should be
all that's necessary, and then roaming is permanently enabled for any
calls. You may find that your phone connects to different French
networks depending on where you are, which doesn't seem to affect its
operation.

Some years ago, when I was on Vodafone, you could dial a French number
in France as 01 23 45 67 89, but now I am on Orange, I find that I have
to dial the full international number of +33 1 23 45 67 89 (or 0033...).
Apart from that, there are no problems - except for the price, though
the EU Commission are now trying to curb the phone companies' excesses.

--
Richard J.
www.stayparis.net

"DCBeverstone" writes:

Whilst all mobiles are capable of making calls to the UK from France
I have so far not received reliable advice on the ability to phone a
French number whilst in France. All I have been told is "one has to
make special arrangements - whatever that might mean. Furthermore,
all of the literature from the mobile phone networks seems to remain
silent on this point.

I've not done France, but with a pre-paid mobile I've phoned Abroad
from (the same value of) Abroad: Italy from Italy and Netherlands from
the Netherlands, without having made any arrangements at all, never
mind special ones, and it works. It can be startlingly expensive, but
it works.

Des

On 11 Apr 2006 10:59:51 +0100, Des Small
wrote:

"DCBeverstone" writes:

Whilst all mobiles are capable of making calls to the UK from France
I have so far not received reliable advice on the ability to phone a
French number whilst in France. All I have been told is "one has to
make special arrangements - whatever that might mean. Furthermore,
all of the literature from the mobile phone networks seems to remain
silent on this point.

I've not done France, but with a pre-paid mobile I've phoned Abroad
from (the same value of) Abroad: Italy from Italy and Netherlands from
the Netherlands, without having made any arrangements at all, never
mind special ones, and it works. It can be startlingly expensive, but
it works.

Worth making sure with your provider, though.

First time I went abroad with an 02 mobile, I phoned beforehand to
make sure that roaming was enabled.

They told me it was.

Got to Germany and found that it wasn't!

Grrrrr!
Keith, Bristol, UK

Email: usenet[dot]20[dot]keefy[at]spamgourmet[dot]com

This is a sp*mtrap, but I will get your mail!

Thanks everybody.

Clearly the important word is 'Roaming'. As mentioned by another
respondant, as soon as we got to France our phone received a 'Welcome'
message from a network there, so we thought we were fine. But it still
didn't accept a dialled call to a French number. It would appear,
therefore, that some phones are activated for 'roaming' and some
aren't. I'll be sure to get this done each time.

(Interestingly I thought that, maybe, Orange was the ideal server
simply because I think I read that it was owned by a French company.
But it would appeat that that's no great advantage after all)

Derek

DCBeverstone wrote:

Clearly the important word is 'Roaming'. As mentioned by another
respondant, as soon as we got to France our phone received a 'Welcome'
message from a network there, so we thought we were fine. But it still
didn't accept a dialled call to a French number. It would appear,
therefore, that some phones are activated for 'roaming' and some
aren't. I'll be sure to get this done each time.

How did you dial the French number? You may have problems when using a UK
mobile, if you do not use the full international number - (001-country
code-areacode-number), even when calling France while in France. That is
to say - your phone, having a UK SIM, acts as though it is in the UK,
therefore requiring you to dial the French number as an international call,
rather than a local one.

If your phone receives the welcome message, it IS roaming enabled - you
won't need to do this each time. And if your PAYG is UK Orange, it is
roaming-enabled by default (well - mine all were!).

DCBeverstone wrote:
Thanks everybody.

Clearly the important word is 'Roaming'. As mentioned by another
respondant, as soon as we got to France our phone received a
'Welcome' message from a network there, so we thought we were fine.
But it still didn't accept a dialled call to a French number. It
would appear, therefore, that some phones are activated for
'roaming' and some aren't. I'll be sure to get this done each time.

Did you prefix the French number with +33 and omit the initial 0 of the
number? If you just dial the number as shown in France, it won't work,
with an Orange phone anyway. I've never needed to reactivate roaming
with Orange after the first activation some years ago.

--
Richard J.
www.stayparis.net

"S Viemeister" wrote in message
...
DCBeverstone wrote:

Clearly the important word is 'Roaming'. As mentioned by another
respondant, as soon as we got to France our phone received a 'Welcome'
message from a network there, so we thought we were fine. But it still
didn't accept a dialled call to a French number. It would appear,
therefore, that some phones are activated for 'roaming' and some
aren't. I'll be sure to get this done each time.

How did you dial the French number? You may have problems when using a UK
mobile, if you do not use the full international number - (001-country
code-areacode-number),

00-country code-etc works better.

Miss L. Toe wrote:

"S Viemeister" wrote in message
...
DCBeverstone wrote:

Clearly the important word is 'Roaming'. As mentioned by another
respondant, as soon as we got to France our phone received a 'Welcome'
message from a network there, so we thought we were fine. But it still
didn't accept a dialled call to a French number. It would appear,
therefore, that some phones are activated for 'roaming' and some
aren't. I'll be sure to get this done each time.

How did you dial the French number? You may have problems when using a UK
mobile, if you do not use the full international number - (001-country
code-areacode-number),

00-country code-etc works better.

+ is the best, and will work in most countries.

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
http://homepage.mac.com/davidhornecomposer http://soundjunction.org