enodreven Posted May 31, 2008 Share Posted May 31, 2008 Hi, There is a debate on another forum as to whether you could use a French/Spanish payg SIM in an unlocked Dongle( USB Modem) to connect to the Internet and if you could does anyone know the settings, what would be needed and the costs a second question was can you use a French/Spanish SIM card in your unlocked mobile phone and use it to connect your laptop to the Internet and again if you can how do you do it and what are the costs Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randonneur Posted May 31, 2008 Share Posted May 31, 2008 braunston - 2008-05-31 10:25 AM Hi, There is a debate on another forum as to whether you could use a French/Spanish payg SIM in an unlocked Dongle( USB Modem) to connect to the Internet and if you could does anyone know the settings, what would be needed and the costs a second question was can you use a French/Spanish SIM card in your unlocked mobile phone and use it to connect your laptop to the Internet and again if you can how do you do it and what are the costs Thank you I don't know the answer to the first bit, didn't realise there was a sim card in a USB dongle. You can use a French/Spanish sim card in an unlocked mobile, I am doing this at the moment, but you have to set the phone/sim card for using the internet. Wherever you buy the sim card should be able to do that. I haven't tried to use the internet via my mobile to laptop as we use free WiFi when out and about. The French mobile phone companies are way behind in their technology use compared to the UK and also in their Broadband supplies. There is a French USB Dongle, Patricia ordered one of these, I don't know how she is getting on with it. Have a look at the websites: Orange.fr and SFR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyPhly Posted June 6, 2008 Share Posted June 6, 2008 braunston - 2008-05-31 9:25 AM Hi, There is a debate on another forum as to whether you could use a French/Spanish payg SIM in an unlocked Dongle( USB Modem) to connect to the Internet and if you could does anyone know the settings, what would be needed and the costs a second question was can you use a French/Spanish SIM card in your unlocked mobile phone and use it to connect your laptop to the Internet and again if you can how do you do it and what are the costs Thank you Hi Braunston, Yes you can use a PAYG sim from another country in an unlocked dongle. Setting it up depends upon the Dongle software and the SIM provider. You will need to know at least the apn address. Some dongles allow you to type this in directly some dont. You should be able to get the apn from the SIM provider. If the dongle software doesnt allow you to change apn settings you could use the dongle as a dial up modem instead and enter the settings direct into windows 'advanced' control panel. something like +cgdcont =1."IP","apn address goes here" Hope that helps Jamie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyPhly Posted June 6, 2008 Share Posted June 6, 2008 Sorry forgot, The PAYG SIM card has to be data enabled and GPRS on. Ive not seen a PAYG SIM card on 3G so EGPRS speeds are the max you'll get. This is ok to check email whilst making a cup of tea. Also since it is PAYG the costs are usually higher than monthly GPRS tarrifs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patricia Posted June 6, 2008 Share Posted June 6, 2008 "There is a French USB Dongle, Patricia ordered one of these, I don't know how she is getting on with it. Have a look at the websites: Orange.fr and SFR." I did try very hard to obtain one of these USB dongles from Orange as they had a special offer on until 23 April which Randonneur kindly drew my attention to. The offer was for a refund after purchase which reduced the price to 29€. I thought this was a good offer so tried to buy over the internet - they refused despite the fact that I am a current client of both France Telecom and Orange (for the French internet). When I arrived in France I tried again (no luck) so I contacted them by email. Nice reply which gave me a telephone number for sales (they refused me and said I must visit an agency) and the address of the nearest agency (which turned out to be false as the agency had moved and they did not open at all on a Monday). Undeterred I went to the agency the next day (each round trip more than 80 kms) only to find that they had sold out but would have some in the following week and that the offer would have to continue. Not so! Still none in the next week and the offer had now increased to 70€ so I gave up. Incidentally before leaving England I had purchased a Mobicarte from Orange and this worked well in an English mobile for about 3 weeks when I kept getting messages that the card would cease to work on 21 May unless I visited an agency with some identification. This being a very long story I will try to be brief. After two visits on 15 May to the agency in Arles (one to top up the card, then another, after receiving the above message, to show my passport which was duly entered on their site) then three visits to the Avignon agency (where I was assured all these messages were just publicity) the phone ceased to work as forecast on 22 May! Back to the agency in Avignon who gave me the phone number where the phone would be reconnected immediately. Not so! The operator insisted that I must send a letter and include a photocopy of my passport etc. So I lost all my credit and had to use my expensive O2 phone for texts! The duration of the card was until December but they may have also reneged on that by now. Suffice it to say that I wrote them a very strongly worded letter but did include my passport picture (no photocopier!), my French bank details and utility bill. No reply as yet! So my advice is not to buy on the internet but to visit an agency in France. Maybe other mobile providers in France or Spain may be less pedantic but I am really fed up with Orange. Incidentally all internet access in France (I think Spain is much cheaper) is very expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randonneur Posted June 6, 2008 Share Posted June 6, 2008 We use Orange France for our mobile and never had a problem. We are using one of my Grandson's cast-off English phones - unlocked - and went into a mobile phone shop here and asked for PAYG sim card. Top it up every 3 months with 35€ and get 45€ credit. Next one is due 15th July and the phone reminds you 10 days before. If you do not top-up then you lose any credit that you have left but you still have the number for 6 months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patricia Posted June 6, 2008 Share Posted June 6, 2008 Precisely - visit the shop. I did this with the last Mobicarte I bought and had no problems because they noted my identification on the spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.