Talk:France/@comment-208.96.188.28-20110728203524

Just got back from two week cycling vacation in France to follow the Tour De France. I have an unlocked iPhone 3gs. Upon arrival in Paris I located an Orange Store near our Hotel, Odeon Metro Station (directly across the street from the Starbucks). The Orange Store staff were surprisingly accommodating, given other comments that I have read. I purchased the mobicarte sim for 15Euro and an additional 10Euro recharge credit (15Euro credit total because the sim comes with 5Euro credit included in the price). I had the email and notifications turned off, but I forgot my instructions at the Hotel and by the time I walked around a bit and got back to the Hotel, the location data services on the iPhone had quickly consumed most of my 15Euro credit. I returned the next day and purchased a 25Euro recharge (which had a 5Euro bonus), and immediately signed up for the Internet Max option as described above. The cost was 9Euro and only took about an hour to activate, for the remainder of my time in travelling throughout France I had pretty good data reception, and was even able to use MyWi to teather my wife's iPad and my sons iTouch.

A final word of caution, ensure all of your Data Services are turned OFF and under no circumstance check email unless on a trusted WiFi network or you will again quickly consume all credit.

The Orange Store clerk also showed me that you can recharge your phone by dialing: and the recharge will be applied instantly, much easier then using the menus.
 * 1) 123*14digit pin# (i.e., #123*12345678912345#)