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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) |
#2
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Using Mobile Phones for internal calls in France?
"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 |
#3
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Using Mobile Phones for internal calls in France?
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 |
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Using Mobile Phones for internal calls in France?
"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 |
#5
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Using Mobile Phones for internal calls in France?
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! |
#6
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Using Mobile Phones for internal calls in France?
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 |
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Using Mobile Phones for internal calls in France?
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!). |
#8
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Using Mobile Phones for internal calls in France?
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 |
#9
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Using Mobile Phones for internal calls in France?
"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. |
#10
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Using Mobile Phones for internal calls in France?
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 |
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