Sim's Card

[marbuck]

What Telco has the best mobile phone service for the Le Puy route and where can I buy a sim's card in Le Puy?

 

[naplesdon]

I use Orange, there coverage is very good. 25 Euros will buy you a reasonable amount of minutes for 60 days of service and they have shops and/or outlets in most major cities. You will need to have an unlocked phone.

 

[Suzanne S.]

I use Orange, there coverage is very good. 25 Euros will buy you a reasonable amount of minutes for 60 days of service and they have shops and/or outlets in most major cities. You will need to have an unlocked phone.

Don, This may be implied in your message, but does Orange work in Spain as well? Thanks!

 

[NicoZ]

Don, This may be implied in your message, but does Orange work in Spain as well? Thanks!

Most likely he meant Orange Spain but all EU carriers should work in all of the EU. You just pay roaming

 

[Bajaracer]

Orange (France) does work in Spain, your voice and data credit gets used up quickly once you cross into Spain, adding credit once you are in Spain is the difficult part unless you can set up some way to pay online.

 

[naplesdon]

Don, This may be implied in your message, but does Orange work in Spain as well? Thanks!

The original question was about service from Le Puy. As you can see from other posts there is Orange service in Spain but if you are doing with French credits they are subject to roaming charges, so you can always get another sim card in Spain or switch to other providers like Vodaphone or Movistar. I don't mind the roaming charges because the few times I've used my phone it was to send a text message. The EU is discussing the end of this ridiculousness of cross border roaming charges but the change is years off.

 

[Suzanne S.]

The original question was about service from Le Puy. As you can see from other posts there is Orange service in Spain but if you are doing with French credits they are subject to roaming charges, so you can always get another sim card in Spain or switch to other providers like Vodaphone or Movistar. I don't mind the roaming charges because the few times I've used my phone it was to send a text message. The EU is discussing the end of this ridiculousness of cross border roaming charges but the change is years off.

Thanks, Don. I am starting in SJPP so I think I will just wait until Spain to buy a sim card.

 

[fraluchi]

[...] does Orange work in Spain as well?

Yes it does, but the use of a "foreign" SIM card becomes very expensive. It is best to take the cheapest packages in each country.

 

[Suzanne S.]

It seems that the cards are not that expensive...perhaps buy one of each, in its respective country?

 

[Buz Radican]

It seems that the cards are not that expensive...perhaps buy one of each, in its respective country?

Hi Suzanne. You might want to check out this web site, a licensee of National Geographic. http://www.cellularabroad.com

 

[Suzanne S.]

Hi Suzanne. You might want to check out this web site, a licensee of National Geographic. http://www.cellularabroad.com

Buz!!! This is great!!! Thank you!

 

[Bajaracer]

It seems that the cards are not that expensive...perhaps buy one of each, in its respective country?

When you start from SJPDP, you're only walking in France for five miles and then you are in Spain, wait till you get to Pamplona to buy a SIM card.
Don't waste your money on a natgeo SIM unless you are going through several countries.
Lebara has some great deals and their site is in english. http://www.lebara.es

 

[naplesdon]

It seems that the cards are not that expensive...perhaps buy one of each, in its respective country?

I might be a little behind the times because my Sim Card is well over 5 years old but I don't remember having to pay for it. I bought minutes and that was the only thing I purchased, the Sim Card came along with the purchase to allow me to have an assigned number. Things may have changed in the past 5 years, as well they do, but I think you will only be buying minutes.

 

[NicoZ]

Hi Suzanne. You might want to check out this web site, a licensee of National Geographic. http://www.cellularabroad.com

That SIM starts at $30. Voice roaming is capped at €0.30 a minute in the EU with an EU SIM. To justify the National Geographic deal you'd need to talk a lot.

For that matter if you aren't talking a lot even spending €5 for a new SIM when you cross a border likely doesn't make sense. By the time you've saved the cost of the SIM on roaming you'll be ready to leave.

Now if you intend to call a lot then it's different. Also data is different. But for limited use voice paying the "expensive" 0.30 roaming isn't likely to matter.

 

[Suzanne S.]

So happy for all the input. Family is concerned about my not calling (very) frequently so it became important for me to get a handle on cost and availability of the card. I did tell them it may be Pamplona before I might hear their dulcet tones over the phone...but that I would try to wifi email...

 

[Nancy P.]

So happy for all the input. Family is concerned about my not calling (very) frequently so it became important for me to get a handle on cost and availability of the card. I did tell them it may be Pamplona before I might hear their dulcet tones over the phone...but that I would try to wifi email...

If you are talking about calling your family, download Skype and put $10 - $15 credit on the phone. It will last the whole time. I have a revolving account and have not used up the initial $10. You can call whenever you are near a wifi spot. Skype is much less expensive than the minutes on your sim card. Also download whatsapp http://www.whatsapp.com/ and have your parents do the same. I believe that then you can text them.

 

[jmcarp]

When you start from SJPDP, you're only walking in France for five miles and then you are in Spain, wait till you get to Pamplona to buy a SIM card.
Don't waste your money on a natgeo SIM unless you are going through several countries.
Lebara has some great deals and their site is in english. http://www.lebara.es

I believe you can buy single-country SIMs from NatGeo at a cost that's more competitive than the multi-country cards which most travelers buy. The multi-country cards issue a UK number, which doesn't give you the best rates in other countries. We used a similar plan from http://www.telestial.com/ on a previous multi-country trip in Europe, and while that plan was cheaper than the NatGeo plan, it was still more than buying a single-country SIM from any of the major carriers in Spain.

At the time we did our Camino (2013), I had an older CDMA-only Verizon smartphone, which was pretty much useless in Europe except as a wifi device. I also had the older unlocked GSM dumb phone from our previous time in Europe, so I purchased an Orange Mundo SIM for it from http://www.simsforspain.com before I left. Calls to the US and Canada were .01€ per minute plus a .19€ connection fee per call. Text messages were more than some other plans -- I believe .71€ each. Since it was a dumb phone, I did not buy data, but just used wifi for email, etc.

For the original question, be sure you have an unlocked, 4-band GSM phone -- some of the older North American GSM phones don't have the European frequency bands and won't work in Spain or elsewhere in Europe.

Regarding coverage, there was only one remote location (don't remember where it was) that my phone with the Orange Mundo SIM card did not have reception on the Camino Frances. On the other hand, my wife just added global roaming to her Verizon 4G smartphone, and she only had coverage in the major towns and cities. FWIW, I believe Verizon partners with Vodafone in Europe, and the agreement does not provide full access to the complete Vodafone network, which explains lack of signal outside metro areas.

Good luck to the original poster on deciding which works best for you. It all sounds pretty complicated for the casual user, but once you understand all the terminology that's being tossed around here, it's really pretty simple -- assuming you have a phone which is or can be unlocked and is compatible with the European GSM frequencies.

 

[gml]

On Le Puy last fall, I used Orange for phone and data (wifi is not as readily available as in Spain), but it was more expensive than cited above because the only temporary plan that was available, the "Orange Holiday" plan, gives only 14 days of service. I paid ~40 euros for a SIM card and the first 14 days of service in Paris (although I think there is a store in Le Puy) and renewed it as needed (for 20 euros) in tabac shops along the way. There were a few spots in the mountains where there was no reception, but in general it was a very good service except for that stingy 14-day limit.