Phone service in France and Spain

[truthseeker]

I plan to walk the Camino in September/October 2018. I have an unlocked Samsung Galaxy s8. What is the best way to use it, if necessary, to call within France and Spain, and also possibly to the US? If I need a Sim card for Europe, do any of the forum members have recommendations?

 

[KarenLW]

I go to Barcelona every year and purchase a SIM card from the Orange store that provides more data that I have used yet in a 4 week period. In the past year, the EU made a rule that all SIM cards in the EU must be usable in all EU countries! So that is sweet. What I cannot answer is which or if any companies have good coverage over any of the caminos. I hope to find that out before my first Camino next year.

 

[t2andreo]

Orange and Vodaphone are the two main mobile providers in Spain, and in France too. I recommend hitting the first mobile shop you encounter, either at the Madrid airport, or at your starting town. They are accustomed to helping pilgrims as well as tourists.

Also, I advise buying more data and less voice capacity. You will use data for text, internet, e-mail, GPS, maps, etc. every day, while voice calls will likely be more sporadic. I suggest at least 1 Gb for your Camino of up to a month.

Personally, I have a 5 Gb monthly plan with t-Mobile here in the US. I have the 'Simple Choice' plan. They allow me to use all my data and make unlimited texts in 140 countries, including all of Europe, without surcharges or roaming fees. Voice calls in and out are USD .20 per minute (20 cents). It is not much and it works great for me.

Beware of plans offering unlimited voice call or text, but only 100Mb of data. That is not much data. You can easily consume 100 Mb just updating apps periodically. Buy more data. Alternatively, be able to recharge your phone over the internet using a credit card.

Also, if your device supports Wi-Fi voice calls, you can put your device into airplane mode, then turn Wi-Fi on, if you happen to be someplace with free Wi-Fi. Then you can make voice over Wi-Fi calls without charge.

I use Face Time - Audio calls - on my iPhone this way. Others use Facebook, Skype, and other similar apps to make internet based voice calls. This preserves scarce voice capability for emergency or urgent calls.

Hope this helps

 

[boski]

Who is your provider? I have Sprint and my texting and data were free and call were free as well if they were to another Sprint phone. But since the data was free I mainly used WhatsApp

 

[Deleted member 3000]

A month of my ATT international service costs me about $80. I can get a SIM from Vodafone that does the same thing for about 15 Euro.

 

[t2andreo]

With few exceptions, cellular service, and especially for use while in another country, is outrageously expensive for folks in North America (Canada & US). Sprint may offer a good alternative...see above. But, they are merging soon with t-Mobile... t-Mobile is the gaining company, so the name going forward will likely remain t-Mobile.

As I mentioned above, I use t-Mobile as my provider in the US and am very satisfied with being able to use all my data allotment, PLUS my accumulated stash of non-used prior month's data, when I am in any of 140 foreign countries, including all of Europe, without roaming charges or fees.

The primary advantage is not having to change SIM cards or adopt a different phone number when out of the US. If someone calls my mobile, it simply rings in Spain, Thailand, Malaysia, or wherever I happen to be. As t-Mobile is one of the first and largest European mobile / cellular providers (home, Germany) they have a huge network of partners all over the world.

Yes, it can be less expensive to obtain a native Spanish SIM for the period you are here. But, I much prefer the seamless nature of t-Mobile's service. As soon as I land at Madrid or Paris, my phone boots up to the local partner provider as though they were my native service. this is at least to me, a huge benefit.

Hope this helps.

 

[JanelMcB]

With few exceptions, cellular service, and especially for use while in another country, is outrageously expensive for folks in North America (Canada & US). Sprint may offer a good alternative...see above. But, they are merging soon with t-Mobile... t-Mobile is the gaining company, so the name going forward will likely remain t-Mobile.

As I mentioned above, I use t-Mobile as my provider in the US and am very satisfied with being able to use all my data allotment, PLUS my accumulated stash of non-used prior month's data, when I am in any of 140 foreign countries, including all of Europe, without roaming charges or fees.

The primary advantage is not having to change SIM cards or adopt a different phone number when out of the US. If someone calls my mobile, it simply rings in Spain, Thailand, Malaysia, or wherever I happen to be. As t-Mobile is one of the first and largest European mobile / cellular providers (home, Germany) they have a huge network of partners all over the world.

Yes, it can be less expensive to obtain a native Spanish SIM for the period you are here. But, I much prefer the seamless nature of t-Mobile's service. As soon as I land at Madrid or Paris, my phone boots up to the local partner provider as though they were my native service. this is at least to me, a huge benefit.

Hope this helps.

I am on the T-Mobile ONE Unlimited 55 plan. Will I need to make any changes to the plan when I arrive at CDG? Anticipate being in Europe for at least two months. Walking Camino starting early September.

 

[trecile]

I am on the T-Mobile ONE Unlimited 55 plan. Will I need to make any changes to the plan when I arrive at CDG? Anticipate being in Europe for at least two months. Walking Camino starting early September.

I have the same plan. I've used T-mobile for several years now, including two Caminos and several other trips to Europe, Mexico and Central America. I always get a welcome to xxx country text when I enter a new country, and an offer of paying more to boost my data speed. I've never done that in the past. But this year I discovered that for $10 a month I can increase my data speed while I'm abroad. You can add it before you leave, then take it off when you get back. Make sure to do it ahead of time because you might have to wait until your next billing cycle for it to take effect. Ask for T-mobile One Plus


And rather than using T-mobile's service to make phone calls at 20¢ a minute, I use the Viber app to make free calls to my husband, and buy $5 worth of Viber credit to make very cheap - 2¢ a minute calls to landlines. You should also install WhatsApp because it's very popular in Spain, and you can use it to call or text many albergues.

 

[t2andreo]

I have the "Simple Choice" plan. I recommend you verify the seamlessness, of your plan at your local t-Mobile shop. You also might want ot have a look at this, form the t-Mobile US web site.

http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans

Assuming it works the same way as mine, getting started is no different than landing an any domestic US airport. Turn on phone. It searches. It logs onto an available network...easy peasy. Just make sure your network search is set to 'automatic' in settings.

Hope this helps.

 

[JanelMcB]

I have the "Simple Choice" plan. I recommend you verify the seamlessness, of your plan at your local t-Mobile shop. You also might want ot have a look at this, form the t-Mobile US web site.

http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans

Assuming it works the same way as mine, getting started is no different than landing an any domestic US airport. Turn on phone. It searches. It logs onto an available network...easy peasy. Just make sure your network search is set to 'automatic' in settings.

Hope this helps.

trecile and t2andreo, I only switched to T-Mobile in February. When I was in the store talking about going to Europe, the sales folks told me I could buy a $25 add-on type of plan that would start on whatever day I bought it and end on that same date the following month. I could purchase the plan at $25 a month for as many months as I thought I would need it. I could cancel at any time. This plan would allow me to call anyone, anytime, anywhere while in Europe. Are you familiar with such? Not leaving until September 3rd, so I still have a little time to get this phone business locked down. I've read nothing but good reviews about T-Mobile and Europe on this forum, so I did not hesitate to do business with them. Thank you for your input.

 

[t2andreo]

Thank you for the added information. Existing t-Mobile customers that have a plan that may not include the international use provision can benefit from this add-on.

 

[Canuck]

Forget Vodafone prepaid sim. Presently on a camino, I bought one 15 days ago and it has yet to work. A visit to three different Vodafone stores along the way resulted in nothing but blank stares.

 

[Rick M]

I can vouch for LeFrench Mobile, which I used on the last trip. You get your SIM by mail before you leave. Activate it and get your new phone number when you get there. English telephone support. On line top ups via international credit card. Probably not the cheapest, but coverage was great, and everything worked exactly as expected.

Buen Camino

 

[trecile]

trecile and t2andreo, I only switched to T-Mobile in February. When I was in the store talking about going to Europe, the sales folks told me I could buy a $25 add-on type of plan that would start on whatever day I bought it and end on that same date the following month. I could purchase the plan at $25 a month for as many months as I thought I would need it. I could cancel at any time. This plan would allow me to call anyone, anytime, anywhere while in Europe. Are you familiar with such? Not leaving until September 3rd, so I still have a little time to get this phone business locked down. I've read nothing but good reviews about T-Mobile and Europe on this forum, so I did not hesitate to do business with them. Thank you for your input.

Yes, I am aware of that plan, but I opted for the $10 a month data speed boost plan instead. My $5 worth of Viber credit allows me to make all the phone calls I need while on the Camino, and I usually have a lot of credit left over. I would have to spend $50 for two months of the other plan, and it's not worth it to me, though it might be to someone else.

 

[trecile]

And for anyone else like me who has been using T-mobile and is over 55 years old ask them about the 55+ plan. It has the same features as the regular T-mobile One plan but at a discount! I haven't seen it advertised, and only learned about it when someone mentioned it on the forum. My husband and I are now saving about $35 a month.