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5G PAYG in France?

Lucian

ULTIMATE Member
Hi,

I'll be in Paris for the most part of next week.
Was wondering, is there some quick payg I could grab from them french news shops or something once I'm there to enable me to do the odd 5G speed test and tether off for a few days?

Any recommendations? Thanks

PS: I am not interested in any of these random esim providers that offer "Europe" sims and so on. I will have enough data on my roaming from O2 to get by, I just want to test the likes of Free, Orange etc.
 
Hi,

I'll be in Paris for the most part of next week.
Was wondering, is there some quick payg I could grab from them french news shops or something once I'm there to enable me to do the odd 5G speed test and tether off for a few days?

Any recommendations? Thanks

PS: I am not interested in any of these random esim providers that offer "Europe" sims and so on. I will have enough data on my roaming from O2 to get by, I just want to test the likes of Free, Orange etc.
O2, iD, EE offer 5G roaming to my memory.
 
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IIRC getting hold of a SIM in France is difficult – think you have to do government paperwork and register your passport or something? If this is a one-off / you don't need to use mobile data in France regularly then I would just rely on roaming.
 
I haven't any direct experience, my last trip to France was while the EU roaming was still in effect so I didn't bother with a local SIM, but this wiki has really good info for all countries including France:


The pertinent section is probably this, as @bh3 mentioned you can't just buy a SIM from a random shop, add some credit and use it:

Activating a SIM card on a network may take up to 48 hours. You will need to show a photo ID at point of purchase to activate SIM cards in France, as it is a legal requirement. A passport or driving licence usually suffice
 
La Poste use the SFR network and can be topped up at any La Poste but all supermarkets also sell pre-paid SIM cards. Having a house in France I'd recommend FREE but they're all much of a muchness. Free also upgrade data to Unlimited if you have their fibre box, I'll assume you don't! Great for roaming in Europe too of course...
 
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I don't have a recommendation, but you'll probably see Orange, SFR, etc, stores at the airport or train station, depending on how you travel. That's probably the best place to buy it since they understand english (if you don't parle français) and have more patience with tourists.

I spent a few days in central Paris this summer. I didn't have a local SIM, but the impression I got is that Orange is the local equivalent to EE and Free = Three. While Orange was fine most of the time, Free was really slow in some areas. For example, near the Eiffel Tower one of my friends had a fast connection with Orange (1pmobile), but I struggled to do a video call with Free (Smarty), so I had to manually pick Bouygues (I couldn't use SFR with Smarty, if I remember correctly). I believe Orange is more expensive though.
 
Was wondering, is there some quick payg I could grab from them french news shops or something once I'm there to enable me to do the odd 5G speed test and tether off for a few days?
If you're in central Paris the easiest solution is to find an Orange store, ask for a pre-paid SIM, show 'em your passport as ID, pay 10 euro minimum and you can walk out of the store with the card live & ready to go. Recharge via their Orange.fr website..

If you're in the 'burbs find any large super/hypermarket like Carrefour, Leroy Merlin, Hyper-U every one has a phone store inside, ask them for a <carte pre-payee> on any of the four main networks - SFR>Orange>Bouygues>Free in that order

If you speak French then La Poste is also an option wherever you find a funky yellow post office.

I got is that Orange is the local equivalent to EE
SFR is the local equivalent and the best choice if you're out of the larger towns and cities.
 
Cheers guys. I'll be going by train, hopefully a nice orange shop by the Gare du Nord.
If your heading towards Germany anytime soon definitely don't rely on EE, its 2G only in countries that have switched of 3G as I learnt the hardway
 
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If your heading towards Germany anytime soon definitely don't rely on EE, its 2G only in countries that have switched of 3G as I learnt the hardway
I've been to Germany on EE and certainly got good 4G speeds on various local operators. Perhaps you need to change the network/operator in the settings.
 
I've been to Germany on EE and certainly got good 4G speeds on various local operators. Perhaps you need to change the network/operator in the settings.
I tried it on all the networks I could connect to, maybe it was just a temp issue but CS confirmed that they had other reports of it, and I was with 2 other family sim members who had the same issues - I know it sounds like a weird one but it was definitely an EE issue

Seems to be documented by others too - https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Mobile-Services/Roaming-in-Germany/td-p/1087956
 
Fair enough, must have been some temporary thing.
Probably yeah, BT Mobile roaming in Germany was always great - and I must give them credit because all networks have always seemed to be able to handle the busy Christmas markets, just out of curiosity which network did you find best over there?
 
Probably yeah, BT Mobile roaming in Germany was always great - and I must give them credit because all networks have always seemed to be able to handle the busy Christmas markets, just out of curiosity which network did you find best over there?
Last year I was in Munchen and got good results both on O2 and Vodafone, sadly no 5G. :(

More details and speed tests here:
 
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