 Poster: A snowHead
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I've posted this in "The Piste" as I thought that there's probably more "traffic" here at this time of year.
I'm heading to France for a full season this winter. My rental apartment doesn't have internet so I'm looking at the possibility of using a mobile device (MiFi etc) with a data Sim card.
Anyone familiar with this. Plenty of data bundles available but a couple of people have mentioned that a UK Sim may end up being capped or "timed-out". I've just been googling this but haven't found anything conclusive yet.
Any help or suggestions welcome. G.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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There was a thread on this earlier in the summer.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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three roam from home is capped at 12 or 15gb a month i think
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@GeorgeVII, when is your season ending? Post brexit the UK will not be part of the single market, the EU roaming regulation will not apply! Your operator may offer you some interesting rates still but that is contingent of french operators offering attractive unregulated wholesale rates to your operator. Wholesale rates are regulated under the eu roaming legislation that allows roam like at home retails deals. With unregulated rates there are no guarantees
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Thanks guys. That was quick. Got to nip out so I'll revisit this later.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@mooney058, Staying beyond the "LEAVE" date until the end of April, (if I'm still in one piece) so this is something else to factor in.
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Think Free.fr is prob your best bet in France. €20 SIM only gives you 100gig of download and unlimited calls/txt.....
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| mooney058 wrote: |
| Post brexit the UK will not be part of the single market, the EU roaming regulation will not apply! |
I'm sure Vodafone and one other operator have already said they'll keep free roaming after Brexit, and I can't see the others dropping it as they'd lose a lot of customers.
And who knows, we may still be part of the single market 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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It depends how much data you use. I go away for 2 months and use a 3 12Gb data sim in a mifi which lasts 12 months, or sometimes a 24Gb one which lasts 24 months. I don't use it for video though. Cheapest to buy several rather than recharge but I think you might need to activate in UK.
This was available for years before the eu roaming legislation came into force - which had the effect of doubling the price! So maybe prices won't go up after brexit.
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Roaming is intended to be used for a week or two while you're on holiday, not for a whole season. I'd have thought you'd be much better off getting a French sim.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| GeorgeVII wrote: |
I've posted this in "The Piste" as I thought that there's probably more "traffic" here at this time of year.
I'm heading to France for a full season this winter. My rental apartment doesn't have internet so I'm looking at the possibility of using a mobile device (MiFi etc) with a data Sim card.
Anyone familiar with this. Plenty of data bundles available but a couple of people have mentioned that a UK Sim may end up being capped or "timed-out". I've just been googling this but haven't found anything conclusive yet.
Any help or suggestions welcome. G. |
We live in Tignes and use Red By SFR for our French mobiles.
They occasionally have great sim only deals with no tie in.
This current deal gives you 40GB per month for €10 pcm.
You'd need to grab it by 15 Oct before the offer expires.
You can then use your phone as your Wi-Fi point/Personal Hotspot.
On our deal we get 50gb for €12 pcm for each member of our family - massively better than the UK offers!
You have to pay €10 for the sim and delivery to a French address and I think that the payment had to be made with a French card maybe.
Worth checking though, which providers work well with a strong signal in your accommodation, if you can.
https://www.red-by-sfr.fr/forfaits-mobiles/#redintid=B_HP_MEA-1-Prospect-40Go
Last edited by snowHeads are a friendly bunch. on Tue 2-10-18 14:46; edited 1 time in total
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@GeorgeVII, Just check what the mobile data reception is like in your apartment. Last season in our apartment we were without wifi the network provider had gone out of business - so we were left relying on a mobile hotspot. Even the the mast was only a few hundred metres from our apartment and in clear view we could rarely get much of a data download. I suspect this was due to overloading the systems as hundreds of people were trying at once. This appeared as bad no matter what provider you were using. It was slightly better during the summer. Hopefully by now a new wifi system is in place.
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I use free.fr which you can purchase from kiosks in various newsagents using a UK credit card. There is an initial €10 fee for the SIM card and then €20 per month ether with rolling billing or you can elect for it not to renew. It’s 100gb data. We are in Chatel and have the sim installed in a 4G router to which we have sufficient bandwidth for Netflix and Prime Video.
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You know it makes sense.
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| martinm wrote: |
| mooney058 wrote: |
| Post brexit the UK will not be part of the single market, the EU roaming regulation will not apply! |
I'm sure Vodafone and one other operator have already said they'll keep free roaming after Brexit, and I can't see the others dropping it as they'd lose a lot of customers.
And who knows, we may still be part of the single market |
Vodafone was the first operator to challenge Eu roaming regulation when it first came about - just saying 😜
Vodafone used to have major assets in the US and had all what was needed to offer its UK/EU customers roam like at home rates as they had a netwotk in the US - they effective wholesale costs were close to zero, though retail rates were faaaaaaaaaaAaaaar from wholesale costs - why would this be different post brexit in an unregulated environment?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@GeorgeVII, do you know if your apartment has a decent mobile phone signal, 3G at a minimum? My place in Les Arcs has a fairly marginal signal and I'd hate to rely on that for internet connection.
UK mobile roaming is designed for short trips not a season-long trip. You might find you come up against their 'fair use' limits if you don't connect your phone to the UK mobile network periodically.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Ozboy wrote: |
| I use free.fr which you can purchase from kiosks in various newsagents using a UK credit card. There is an initial €10 fee for the SIM card and then €20 per month ether with rolling billing or you can elect for it not to renew. It’s 100gb data. We are in Chatel and have the sim installed in a 4G router to which we have sufficient bandwidth for Netflix and Prime Video. |
Just to point out that you are not really supposed to use free in a router. The free network is not great and does depend on you have a free antennae nearby.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@davidof, why not? we are in Chatel and get c. 13mbps download which is fine for Internet. movies and kids playing on their kindles. I get 75pct signal strength from the local antenna on the router. Prior to Free we used a Vodafone UK sim with free data roaming and had the same experience but needed come nfiguring. The reason we are hapilly relying on 4G router is because Orange have been useless at trying to connect us to their broadband network - we returned all our equipment and they fully refunded us.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Ozboy wrote: |
| @davidof, why not? |
because it is in the free contract not to do it.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@slowboarder, Which area of Tignes do you live in? I'm going to be in Lavachet.
I'm probably going to invest in a mobile router and a French data Sim. In-Laws use a mains/12v one in their motorhome and Portugese base. I'm thinking of using it in our van when I return to the UK.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@davidof, I don't see anything in the Free contract that prohibits using it in a router, which page did you see the restriction on ?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@davidof, I told them I had a router during an online live chat enquiring how to obtain a sim. No different to having phone set as a hotspot.
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| GeorgeVII wrote: |
@slowboarder, Which area of Tignes do you live in? I'm going to be in Lavachet.
I'm probably going to invest in a mobile router and a French data Sim. In-Laws use a mains/12v one in their motorhome and Portugese base. I'm thinking of using it in our van when I return to the UK. |
We're in Boisses.
Red-SFR mobile has good coverage all over the Tignes villages but be wary of how strong that signal might be within whichever building you will be staying in (all providers).
I also use a Free mobile, €2 pcm for a basic phone package but might be dumping it soon as the coverage seems to be very intermittent recently where we are
and I often have no signal. Maybe someone else higher up in Tignes (Lac, Lavachet, VC) could let you know on Free's coverage up there and other providers.
You can join the Tignes FB groups (Tignes Seasonaires etc) and ask on there too for advice.
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@GeorgeVII, I know that stewart woodward uses Free and lives in Lavachet. Mine worked fine in Lac too but not used it for data as I stay near enough to the Maison de Tignes to be able to use their WiFi.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@rjs, I'll be a neighbour of Stewarts'. I'll have to have a word 
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Wed 3-10-18 20:25; edited 1 time in total
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@slowboarder, Thanks. I'm on the 2019 FB group. I'll try that as well.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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If you need to have a net frenzy arrive at a penthouse pad you know with beers and I'll give you Harry potter's spell to make the interpipes work 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@slowboarder, I’ve interpreted the Free €2pm plan that be a mechanism to retain the SIM card / phone number for periods when not on their €20 pm package.
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| mooney058 wrote: |
Vodafone was the first operator to challenge Eu roaming regulation when it first came about - just saying 😜
Vodafone used to have major assets in the US and had all what was needed to offer its UK/EU customers roam like at home rates as they had a netwotk in the US - they effective wholesale costs were close to zero, though retail rates were faaaaaaaaaaAaaaar from wholesale costs - why would this be different post brexit in an unregulated environment? |
Not sure if you're saying they will or will not be bringing back roaming charges  but here's one version of the story saying they won't
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/09/13/brexit_mobile_roaming/
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You know it makes sense.
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@chocksaway, I think I can remember the code for the front door.... b-e-e-r-$ 123?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Ozboy wrote: |
| @slowboarder, I’ve interpreted the Free €2pm plan that be a mechanism to retain the SIM card / phone number for periods when not on their €20 pm package. |
No, it's just a cheap and cheerful Sim only deal that I hung on to for a tiny old clam shell phone in which the battery lasts for at least 5-6 days as against 1 day max for my smart phone in cold temps.
Minimal data, 300 mins calls, unlimited texts.
I use that phone on the mountain for snow sports, Summer activities etc.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| rjs wrote: |
| @davidof, I don't see anything in the Free contract that prohibits using it in a router, which page did you see the restriction on ? |
@rjs
Yes you are right, they changed their contracts in May to permit personal use in a router. Sorry for the confusion.
I would agree that it is a good option if you have a Free antenna close by.
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FAQ
The link you provided does not say 'they won't' 
