Any Advice for Obtaining French Cell Phone Sim Cards?
I will be in France for 10 days and want to purchase Sim cards for all four people in my traveling party. Any suggestions on whether to buy them while in the U.S. or wait until arriving in Paris? Suggested telecom companies?
Also, does anyone know if there's a way to notify me by email or in my Tauck account when responses to my discussion are posted?
Many thanks.
Jeff
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Most major U S carriers offer full European service for $10 per day. No need to change SIM cards.
Unlike many forums, on the Tauck forum you won't receive any notifications when someone posts to your thread.
You don’t need sim cards these days. My plan with Comcast is even automatically Ok when I am abroad. As soon as I enter a new country, I get a text saying. Welcome to ……texts or calls cost so much a minute. I use the free FaceTime on my iPad but general don’t make calls because of the time differences.
Jeff-hi old friend!!
When I have been abroad, I use an app that allows free internet calls. I use VIBER but there are many others.
P.S. I sent a reply to your message
I agree with other responses. No need for SIM cards. I have Verizon and it is $10.00/day and you are only charged for the days that you actually use it. I believe other Carriers have similar plans. I haven't actually used it myself, but it is good to know that it's available if needed. My boyfriend was able to use this when we were in Cuba in 2017. When I was on a River Cruise in 2018 with Tauck, they set up my phone to be able to use the ship's WiFi and I was able to easily send texts with no additional charge. Another good option that I have used is WhatsApp. It is totally free and you can make calls and send texts, pictures and video easily over WiFi. I have a friend that uses this app all the time when she is in Aruba and we are able to communicate very easy. Her daughter travels all over the world and has used this app many times without issues.
I have Verizon and have used Wifi Calling (turn on in Settings-Connections) using a hotel's or cruise ship's wifi (hotel wifi is usually free and cruise ship charges per day or trip, depending on the plan you sign up for). Wifi calling acts as if you are in the US when making calls (or texts). There's no extra charges and no need to dial a country code. Just make sure you turn Data off, so the call is routed through wifi.
@BKMD...Will wi-fi calling allow inbound calls too? Some excellent options in this post. Thanks. Ed
Please confirm that I understood the Verizon rep correctly... I'm heading in 3 weeks on a Tauck Europe trip...(unless it gets cancelled). I've used Verizon's "Travel Pass" at $5 per 24-hour period in Mexico and Canada and $10 in Europe. I was only charged on days I used it for texts/calls to US and checking email. Each 24 hour period begins at the time you first use it that day so if I place a call at 10pm in Europe to someone in the US, I have until 10 PM the following day on the same $10 charge. However, I cannot, for example, call a restaurant in Europe to make reservations... to call a non-US number you need the "International Plan". So do I just set my iphone to airplane mode when not calling/texting or retrieving email messages. I think on airplane mode I was still able to use many handy apps... currency converter, clock/alarm and a maps app (but of course without any navigation capability).
Ah yes, I use, WhatsApp too, I get WhatsApp texts and photos and videos almost daily from England, doesn’t cost me anything. You have to invite people to be on your WhatsApp call list, so no annoying spam. I believe this is a Facebook company, I, not on Facebook but can still get it.
I also use WhatsApp to send texts and photos from overseas however I have TMobile and they have free texting overseas.
My experience with the TMobile free texting overseas is that it is limited to strictly 'text', no photos could be sent via text message. Purely 'text' text messages worked as advertised. Perhaps others have had different experiences. If you're on WiFi then everything works. I'm referring to times when not on WiFi.
Patrice: To answer your question about using the Verizon Travel Pass to make local calls within a specific country that you travel to. I googled the question and received this response from Verizon. "Calls to the USA and within the country you're traveling are included in TravelPass. Calls to other international destinations are blocked while you're roaming." So basically, Verizon doesn't want you calling all over the world for $10.00 a day. Furthermore, this plan still pulls from your U.S. data, text, and calling allowance, so make sure to keep an eye on how much you use your phone.
As BKMD stated, you can also use WiFi Calling as most places these days, US and overseas, have free WiFi including the Hotels, River Cruise Ships, coffee shops, etc. I still think the best and least expensive App to use is WhatsApp or something similar. Your data allowance will not be affected and friends and family can contact you for free when you are traveling if they also have the App. It seems to be, in my opinion, the best option. Of course, you can always use TravelPass as a back-up plan if needed if you can't get access to WiFi, it doesn't cost anything to sign up for it. The pass can get costly, though, as you do get charged $10.00 even if you make only one call. Hope this helps. I also have a private VPN that I activate when traveling anywhere outside my home, that way you know your information is private. I can't remember what it cost per year, but it wasn't much.
AshvEd - Yes. As long as you are connected to wifi, you will receive incoming calls/texts from the US. Again, just make sure Data is OFF, so you're not connected to some roaming cell service.
Here's a link to Verizon's FAQ on wifi calling; https://www.verizon.com/support/wifi-calling-faqs/
Disclaimer: Though I have done a lot of tech and engineering stuff, believe it or not, I do not own a cell phone- I leave that up to my wife who has an iPhone.
Background:
I have an older iPad Air 2 with both Wifi (for email, browsing, etc.) and Cell data for data/texting, etc., but do not currently have a cell data contract or plan (I briefly had one with Verizon)
I want to be able to stay in contact with my wife when we are in different areas of the Petra site during our J&E trip next year. She will have her iPhone and some sort of international plan, probably with her carrier, Verizon.
Wifi is a non-starter. While there are annotations on the Petra site map and supposedly signs in some locations that say there is free Wifi, most web accounts, TripAdvisor, etc., say Wifi is not available, not working, or won't likely be in range, so I'm stuck with cell data- I only need to be able to text msg. It appears my iPad is unlocked so I should be able to use a pre-paid SIM card (from a Middle East cell provider- Orange, Zain, etc.) to do that.
I haven't been to the Verizon store to see if they can and what it would cost to re-activate cell data plan on my iPad and add an international plan to it and my wife's iPhone. If that is possible and reasonably-priced, then that might be the simplest way to go. Whatever the solution, I don't want a hassle and don't want to spend a lot of money, but I want it to work in the hills of Petra.
Questions for anyone who knows a lot more about this than my obviously weak knowledge, or is a real expert using a cell phones overseas:
For those who do not rely solely on Wifi based apps, do you just get an international roaming plan of some sort through your regular carrier?
Or, assuming you have an unlocked phone, do you get a SIM card (at the airport?) in the country you are visiting? I would rather not waste time in the airport, since we don't arrive until 11:00 pm, might have language problems at a cell store, and the driver and fellow Tauck travelers won't appreciate it if I delay the trip to the hotel.
Has anyone purchased/rented a cheap phone w/SIM for use overseas?
Does anyone have any other suggestions?
Both my wife and I have Verizon and use the travelpass. We use it mostly for the convenience of having data access. We can get real time bus and transportation options, make and confirm restaurant reservations, get an Uber ride etc. We are not tied to a data hotspot to use our phones. It can add up to be fairly expensive. Two phones for 2 weeks usage would cost $280. The travelpass doesn't work everywhere. On our trip to India and Nepal we had to use prepaid data which was limited.
You can buy a sim sim card at the Paris airport for €50 which gets you 50 GB of data. It goes down to about €20 if you wait and get it in the city. In the UK a sim card can be bought at Heathrow airport for about £20 for varying amounts of data based on the carrier.
We haven’t done the sim card route yet, but as we get back into traveling it is something I am going to look into.
Note that in order to swap sim cards in an existing phone, you must use a GSM phone. In the US, those are used by ATT and T-Mobile. Verizon uses CDMA and is not compatible with GSM.
Most of the GSM/CDMA incompatibility will go away when 5G becomes mainstream, as there is a single standard for 5G. But we're not there yet.
A BIG "Thank You" for all the valuable information! I did not know that I could call to a number in the country I'm traveling when using Verizon's Travel Pass. And I forgot that my iPad is included on my plan too... for $10 monthly. It's nice to view my photos and read/respond to my email messages on the bigger iPad screen with built in keyboard. Now I'm definitely going to look into Whats App. Great tip.
Verizon uses CDMA, however most of the world uses GSM. Unless your phone is pretty old, it should work on both networks. The Verizon CDMA network will be retired in about a year or so. I have a newer iPhone and it works on both. Another thing to watch out for is having a locked phone. Some carriers will lock your phone especially if you are paying it off on a monthly basis. They don't want you to switch carriers before the phone is paid for. Your phone must be unlocked to use it on another carrier. I don't believe Verizon locks any of their phones.
We have Comcast, we get one gigabyte a month between us a month for $12 for the two of us. After that, it is $12 per gig. Which is plenty for us, we don’t use our phones much or watch videos on it or anything like that. We rarely go over the gig, if we do when we are in another country, it’s peanuts. We arrive in a country and we get a text to tell us how much it costs, actually, not much. We do not have to tell Comcast we are traveling. We have used our phones when traveling, but rarely. As I said before, we generally use our iPads for communication to family and looking at downloaded photos. Most of our destination are 6 to 12 hours time difference, so it is difficult to live call people in the US when either of us will likely be asleep. Tauck still does not allow cell phone use when the group is together, thank goodness!
I don't need voice. According to the spec sheet, my older iPad Air 2, Model A1567, has both CDMA and GSM:
UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+/DC‑HSDPA (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
and:
CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1900 MHz)**
So what do you guys think, can I do it? - Depending on cost, can I add my iPad to our account and get an international plans for both iPhone and iPad or get an international plan for the iPhone and get a local SIM for my iPad.
Does anyone have a source to purchase international SIM cards before leaving the states?
Alan - Since you quoted me and requested a response, I'll answer, but I have no experience with GSM phones. That said, if your device supports GSM< it should work, though configuring it might not be intuitive. Re the sim card, like changing currency, I suspect getting one at your destination would be a lot easier and cheaper. Cell phone stores seem to be ubiquitous in many countries. And they come with millennials who know this stuff
Since I am also quoted, I’ll give my response. Alan, I don’t see any reason why your setup won’t work. Doing a google search for International Sim Cards or Prepaid Sim Cards will bring up all kinds of results. I also believe it would be cheaper to get one when you arrive overseas. In the past I have taken the easy route and used my Verizon plan and paid the price.
All that being said my other question is why not just get an iPhone or another smart phone? My wife and I were in an extremely crowded area in London a few years ago and got separated by about 5 or 6 blocks. Neither of us know where we were but our phones provided the communication needed to find out where we were. I don’t want to turn this into a sales pitch for phones and I am sure you know most of the advantages.
Enough of my rant on cells phones or my spam count will rise too much.😂
JohnS - All of the points you raise are valid.
I think, at least personally, we carry our cell phones mostly for picture taking, texting since it is free on our T-Mobile plan, and for emergencies, but try to get by without using cellular service for data like using maps. If I know there will be a bunch of free time in an area where we might want to wander, then I will pre-download a map of an area so that it can be used offline (not via cellular). Using the phone exactly how you use it at home, although possible in most places, provides, for me personally, an uneasy feeling of what the bill will be when it shows up after the trip. It could easily run into the hundreds of dollars, which for me, unless in case of an emergency, can be avoided.
Since I posted the original question, let me thank everyone for their responses. All the information is helpful. Let me update my original request by saying that I need voice communication ONLY for contacting the other travelers in my party while in France (e.g., we get separated during excursions). I can call back to the U.S. using WhatsApp or Facetime when I have Wi-Fi in the hotel or on the ship. That's why I'm thinking that each of us purchasing a Sim card...or at least one per couple will be helpful. Best, Jeff
Can’t pyu all just get WhatsApp?
WhatsApp is like other communications software protocols (SMS, iMsg, Facetime, Zoom, FB messenger, etc., etc.)- the signal has to travel via Wifi, cell data (or possibly device to device if they are really close.) "WhatsApp requires an internet connection to send and receive messages. If you're connected to wi-fi this isn't a problem, but when you're out and about, the app uses your mobile data connection." I won't be near a Wifi hotspot so unless I get an international data plan with a US provider or local SIM card (w/plan) I won't have cell data when we are in Petra.
I really don't need another cell phone of my own, my wife has one and we travel together. I guess I need to check with Verizon first then see about getting a temporary phone or SIM card for my iPad once we arrive in Jordan.
My husband uses his old phone just for email while in the house, keeps it by the bedside. We don’t have our iPhones by our bedside, keep them downstairs, still have a landline for any calls there. Does your wife have an old iPhone lying around that can be reactivated for a month?
She has 2 but I think her iPhone 6 is broken. Reactivating her iPhone 4S may be an option if it isn't too old and if it will work in Jordan with a Verizon plan. It is GSM capable according to the specs, but I don't know if it needs to be reconfigured, or if it will work with a local SIM card in Jordan.
As I mentioned, my iPad Air is both CDMA and GSM capable also, but again doen't know whether at the same time or if it needs another SIM card. I could theoretically activate cell data with Verizon or just get a Zain or Orange SIM card at the airport in Amman. Due to size I really would rather not take my iPad on my trek.
It comes down to cost, convenience, and performance. I know Zain and Orange networks work well throughout Jordan, but am not too sure about Verizon's network, however they do it- I need to research this.
Do friends have any newer phones they can give you? I guess, or even loan. Trying to scrape the barrel here.
My IPhone 8 worked in Jordan on Verizon's travel pass plan. I really needed it when I was trying to get home early in March 2020!