mcanderson
Well-known member
Any suggestions for a data sim package in France. Fine with a 12/24 month contract. Using roaming has been okay, but speed throttling is becoming an issue.
French data sim
- Thread starter mcanderson
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Forty_Two
Well-known member
www.free.fr 210GB/mth €19.99 5g/4g. Been using for 5 years. Get the sim from a self service machine, rolling monthly contract.
markc
Well-known member
Yes, good choice - I have the same. Once a year you can reduce the tariff to €1 a month if you're not using it, say during winter. The only problem is that you can't buy more data if you run out, so if that happens we just visit the local vending machine an buy a single month for €30. I think you can get some sort of combo deal if you have Free.fr at home - so may be useful for your apartment.
mcanderson
Well-known member
Perfect. Thanks. We do have Free in the apartment so will see if I can get it added to our contract.
philipdawsonladds
Active member
Does anyone really use that much data? I used to pay for unlimited then realised that I only actually used less than 5Gb/Month due to WiFi connections most of the time. If you want a UK card too then look at SMARTY - £7/Mo for 8Gb including roaming throughout the EU.
Hurricane
Well-known member
It doesn't help with France but in Spain we use a local SIM deal called Lobster (www.lobster.es) which is designed for expats (Brits) and works for us as well.
Simple setup. Buy it automatically by the month. If you run out you simply buy another month. When you go home, you can also freeze it until you return. 10 euros for 25Gb.
I've got two on the boat running att different dates - both fitted into 4G routers.
Simple setup. Buy it automatically by the month. If you run out you simply buy another month. When you go home, you can also freeze it until you return. 10 euros for 25Gb.
I've got two on the boat running att different dates - both fitted into 4G routers.
Alicatt
Well-known member
For anyone wanting a SIM in Belgium we get a complimentary data sim with our mobile phone + TV +Internet contract, it is 4g/5g with unlimited data, I use my phone a bit more than my wife and I'm still under 1GB per month and the data sim is in my tablet, so far I have not used any mobile data this month on the data sim and 493MB on the phone sim. with a 1Gb/s down/upload (5G)
€20/month would get you a SIM with 8GB data and unlimited SMS/ voice calls with a 30Mb/s download and 5Mb/s upload but you can also get it as a pay as you go that is charged at €0.10/MB
€20/month would get you a SIM with 8GB data and unlimited SMS/ voice calls with a 30Mb/s download and 5Mb/s upload but you can also get it as a pay as you go that is charged at €0.10/MB
markc
Well-known member
We can easily use 500gb in a month on the boat
Bandit
Well-known member
Amazon France does not sell sim data cards, IIRC I think it is because they want to know who has what cards for terrorism reasons.
I use "Three"24gb data cards Amazon.co.uk in my iPad and in my TP wifi Amazon.co.uk
They cost £34 for cards they seem to work all over Europe and in CI and UK, they last for ages, no contract. with Mobiles you can calls run through the TP link on board or on the go so data rates rather than voice call rates. Ipads with a sim slot I just put one in the sim slot , wife's ipad no sim slot works through the TP link.
I dont bother topping up I just put a fresh one in.
I use "Three"24gb data cards Amazon.co.uk in my iPad and in my TP wifi Amazon.co.uk
They cost £34 for cards they seem to work all over Europe and in CI and UK, they last for ages, no contract. with Mobiles you can calls run through the TP link on board or on the go so data rates rather than voice call rates. Ipads with a sim slot I just put one in the sim slot , wife's ipad no sim slot works through the TP link.
I dont bother topping up I just put a fresh one in.
st599
Well-known member
Different countries have different SIM registration laws. In some you need to present your passport at a post office, some allow shops to register them. Very few are like the UK.
Three are good, but they've just been bought and are amalgamating with their new owners soon.
jfm
Well-known member
100% agreed.
Generally in this conversation, it's important not to mix up 3 or Three on the one hand, with Free on the other hand. They are different companies.
BTW, I'm switching to Starlink Maritime - will report back on that in a while. Hoping for great results obviously.
Hurricane
Well-known member
A guy with a Princess has just arrived in SCM for the summer. He came over from Mahon. He has Starlink. I had a quick chat with him but I hope to have a longer discussion before we go home. One of my questions will be Starlink.
But for me, 4G works well enough.
jfm
Well-known member
There are many flavours of Starlink. "Starlink Maritime" is the one that ticks all of our boxes. If you get talking to the guy and he has any comments good or bad, it would be good to know which flavour he has.
Maritime used to require $5k/month and you got 5Tb/month, which is more data and cost than I need/want, but they are now doing 1Tb/month which makes a lot more sense. That's 1Tb of priority access, after which you have unlimited non priority.
Hurricane
Well-known member
We are on anchor in Mallorca at the moment but I will try and talk to him next week after we get back.
erob85
New member
I recently installed Starlink, and use the Mobile Priority Package. It was only necessary to upgrade to to Priority package when we were around 10 miles offshore, otherwise the Roam package works perfectly fine.
We travel between 18 and 25 knots and get a continuous connection with no dropouts.
I did adapt the standard dish and installed in the system from Outback Comms on the roof, 0.7m away from the radar. I’m using some third party kit, such as the power injector and own router so we do see some degradation in speed, but it is still consistently around 40/50Mbps with latency of sub 40ms.
Overall, it has been very good and the fact that it can be paused and started really works for us.
We travel between 18 and 25 knots and get a continuous connection with no dropouts.
I did adapt the standard dish and installed in the system from Outback Comms on the roof, 0.7m away from the radar. I’m using some third party kit, such as the power injector and own router so we do see some degradation in speed, but it is still consistently around 40/50Mbps with latency of sub 40ms.
Overall, it has been very good and the fact that it can be paused and started really works for us.
Hurricane
Well-known member
Starlink.
I finally got to chatting with the guy over a beer in SCM yesterday.
He is using the cheaper option - I'm not sure of the Starlink plan name but it is a static option.
Static means that it will only work a couple of miles from its registered location.
However, you can re-register it if you move locations.
For example he moved his boat from Mahon to SCM so he re-registered and it now works here.
It costs him £70 per month for unlimited data which is quite a good deal.
Not as cheap as 4G but not a league away.
I guess that as technology moves on, we will see more of this kind of service.
Maybe the mobile versions will also become more affordable as well.
Take it to its ultimate conclusion and the likes of Vodafone should start to worry!!
jfm
Well-known member
Thanks Hurricane
Yes I think a lot of folks are doing that on boats. I think that's a non priority service, by the way, which will only matter in busy places of course. Starlink Maritime is a priority service.
I'm not sure but I'd guess the threat to vodafone etc is perhaps not too significant. Our 4G/5G phones rely on very short range as a means to handling so much traffic. Starlink has much more powerful transmitters, to reach satellites 350 miles high, so cannot (I suspect) directly replace 4G/5G due to lack of bandwidth
Yes I think a lot of folks are doing that on boats. I think that's a non priority service, by the way, which will only matter in busy places of course. Starlink Maritime is a priority service.
I'm not sure but I'd guess the threat to vodafone etc is perhaps not too significant. Our 4G/5G phones rely on very short range as a means to handling so much traffic. Starlink has much more powerful transmitters, to reach satellites 350 miles high, so cannot (I suspect) directly replace 4G/5G due to lack of bandwidth
Hurricane
Well-known member
I was out to lunch with him yesterday and he also mentioned that the hardware is different to the full maritime version.
For me, 4G is a much cheaper solution.
Certainly for those people who just want an internet connection whilst they are on their boats.
I use a local 24/7/365 4G connection which is nearly a tenth of the cost of his static solution.
And even less for people who only need a connection whilst they are on their boats.
These days 4G is good enough to watch TV - eg- the F1 yesterday with no problems.
In fact, I have two 4G connections permanently on the boat.
4G is good for boating as well - only loosing the actual connection during the longer passages whilst out of sight of land.
We only loose our connection for about 80 miles when we cross to the Balearics - apart from that it is on all the time.
But with technology moving at such a rate, we need to keep an eye on whats available.
