One of my first posts on this site was this one about Mobile Roaming Data tips.
As with anything in the IT and Telco space, things change, so an update is warranted.
After I returned home to a AUD$2000 mobile phone bill I had a look around for an international data roaming cap plan from the Australian carriers. At the time, only Vodafone had a plan (see below).
Telstra also now has a plan, though it’s quite expensive (see below).
| Provider | Cost | Data Included | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vodafone | $49 | 25MB | |
| Vodafone | $199 | 120MB | |
| Vodafone | $329 | 200MB | |
| Vodafone | Call Vfone | 1GB | |
| Vodafone | Call Vfone | 2GB | |
| Telstra | $160 | 60MB | 50c session flagfall |
I am pretty sure Optus (still) don’t have an international roaming cap for data, but I could not confirm as their website was throwing errors when I clicked through to the page.
The downside of course is that you need to be a Telstra or Vodafone post-paid customer. To my knowledge, there is no prepaid data cap plan available in the Australian market.
Here are the links for Vodafone and Telstra.
Of course, you can always get a data SIM from someone like Orange or Bouygues Telecom when you arrive in France (quand tu arrive en France!).
You probably ought to speak a little French, though, if you want to try for a data card from a French provider. Last year, we bought prepaid data cards from Orange. This turned out to be a debacle, as Michael’s data allowance was used with a couple of Tweets; a good way to burn 40 Euro (I think for a couple of hundred MB). You really need a shop assistant who understands what you need – a prepaid data plan in the order of 200MB or whatever your requirements are.
So, if any readers out there can tell us of the existence of a pre-paid data product for France, that would be a tremendous help to us and to other readers. You can provide this by simply putting a link to a product page (URL) from Bouygues Telecom (or similar) in the comments below.
What we need:
- Information about any products from French providers, that allow for data use, on a prepaid basis.
- As above, but from German, Swiss, Belgian, Spanish or otherwise providers. The trick here though, is that they’ll probably have to be roaming plans, as I guess the transition from Switzerland (or Germany, Spain etc) into France will cause the data you use to be on roaming rates.
- As in the first point, but from American, Canadian, British (and anyone else) providers. I was aware of a Verizon product allowing unlimited international data roaming, but I can’t find that product on their site, so it might not be available anymore.
Any information you provide will be a tremendous help to your fellow France adventurers, and will help me update the Cycling Through France Guide.
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