PeterOR

My wife and I are planning to take our caravan over to France soon, and visit various areas in search of somewhere to buy a house. When travelling with our caravan in the UK, we use a mobile broadband "dongle" which takes a data SIM and gives us internet access via 3G/4G (if there's a signal). Is anything similar available in France?

EuroTrash

SIMs are the same the world over. If your dongle is unlocked you can buy a French sim and stick that in. If it's not unlocked you can buy a French package such as this one from Orange https://boutique.orange.fr/tablette-...net-prepaye-4G
but personally I would buy an unlocked mifi device from eg Amazon then you can swap providers if you like.

I have a mifi device and a French Orange data sim for when I'm in France, a UK 3 data sim for when I'm in the UK and an Irish 3 data sim for when I'm in Ireland.
Happy travels :-)

PeterOR

Thanks, EuroTrash. The dongle I am using in the UK is an unlocked EE mifi device, with a 3 data SIM which gives me 30Gb per month, so I would be looking for something similar from Orange. Where would be the best place to look for this?

EuroTrash

There is an Orange shop in most towns. Or big supermarkets that have a technology section usually sell a range of SIMs.
Take your passport with you because you will probably have to prove your ID, and you might have a bit of hassle if they insist on an address, I'm not sure whether they still do but certainly they used to (all French SIMs sold are supposed to be traceable to a name and address so that the police can follow up on calls relating to criminal activity, I don't think they do this in the UK). Supermarkets will often accept a campsite as an address but an Orange shop might be more picky, I guess it depends who you happen to get at the counter. You'll just have to see how you get on.

scrubbedexpat056

Hi PeterOr
I've just been through all of this doing something similar to you only house hunting in a boat on the Canal du Midi. It all depends on how much internet you need. The deal breaker in France if you need more than a few gb per month at a high price is a French bank account since you will only get a good deal if you pay by direct debit and none of the providers will accept a foreign account. Years ago a small provider realised there was a money to be made accepting a uk account (I can't remember the name) and I signed up for a really cheap deal. One month later it was bought out by Virgin France and they cancelled the deal.
Someone on here recommended Free, but when I went into one of their the shops the saleswoman said it was based on a mains powered box at home so no use in a boat. My French isn't great, but it's functional and I'm pretty sure I understood correctly what she was saying. I finally settled for a data only sim from SFR which costs 20 euro per month for which I get 50 gb. More than enough for the two of us. The guy in the shop set it up for us in our mobile wifi device and it has worked well since we bought it. They accepted the boatyard where we are currently getting ready for the off as an address, but as I said, it is the French bank account that will get you the deal.
Also, since the change in data roaming rules, we can use it anywhere in Europe without extra charges other than a possible choking of the speed after a huge amount of gb.
Other threads have covered French bank accounts. We have gone with the English speaking Britline section of CA and are very happy with the service so far.
Good luck with it all.

cyrian

If you are using a 3 data sim then that will work in France.
If necessary you can buy an add-on from 3.
The EU is an "at home" destination for 3 therefore it is not "roaming".

PeterOR

Many thanks for that info, Alianco. When you got the deal from SFR, was that with or without a French bank account?

scrubbedexpat056

Yes, that was with our Britline account.
I remembered the name of the cheap provider with no French bank account needed. It was called JoMobile, around 2013. After the first month of my use (I don't know how long they had been going before that) they announced that they were being bought out by Virgin and that I would simply have to re-register online. It wouldn't accept my UK bank account for a direct debit so I went to a Virgin shop where a terribly helpful, English speaking guy tried to get me registered and was surprised when he couldn't.
I've always thought there was a market for foreigners who need more than a few gb per month, who don't have a static address, but are willing to sign up for a 12 month contract. JoMobile must have been doing well enough to be bought out by Virgin. Having said that my knowledge of big business finance is zero.

scrubbedexpat056

Just to amend a little my previous reply, Of course I needed an address for them to send the sim to even though my home as such wasn't static. The address didn't have to be related in any way to my UK bank account. I simply used the marina we were wintering in

Smithy73

Not sure why you would bother! As Cyrian pointed out. Any UK mobile phone provider now allows you roaming in any part of Europe as part of your allowance. You need to be on contract, this doesn't work for more than a few weeks with PAYG. EE in my opinion is one of the best providers for this. They will give you an iPhone SE or 6, unlimited calls and 30GB of data for £40 a month - even less if you don't want the phone and you have another smartphone. Any modern smartphone will create a WiFi hotspot the same as the MiFi device.

3 have a number of time limits on roaming... but EE don't care. I regularly use 25GB of data with EE each month for £28 plus unlimitled calls, months at a time before returning to London. If I run out of data, I can buy another 10GB voucher.

scrubbedexpat056

Smithy73, in theory we are on an extended holiday, but in reality I don't live in the UK anymore and don't have or want a UK contract. I assumed the OP was in a similar position since he was asking about foreign sim cards. If he has a UK contract then of course he won't need to buy one over here.