Montpellier Travel Forum

Please advice what's the best way to obtain a mobile phone in Montpellier? Will be staying there for a month. I don't need an expensive phone. A basic one should be fine to communicate between France, Italy and United States. If I buy a phone, about how much will it cost? Is there such thing as "no contract" with a service provider? Will phone card work with a mobile phone. Thanks!

Try the local Orange store and buy a pay as you go - last year according to how much credit you bought you got a certain amount of free credit. The store in Beziers [Auchan] Centre Commerciale are very helpful - about 45 mins clear run

Assuming you are not now using a GSM phone (AT&T or T-Mobile), the best course of action is to buy a used, tri or quad band, unlock cell phone on eBay. Most of the GSM phones on dBay meet these basic requirements. They can be purchased for about $50 or less.

Phones with prepaid service (no contract) are available widely in Montpellier but they will cost more there. Once you have a phone, select a provider. There is a wide choice with many options. Here is a summary:

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/france.html

Are you traveling with a laptop?
VoIP is the least expensive way to communicate if you have an internet connection. There are many, many options: Skype, Gizmo, ekiga, and others. VoIP works well and international calls are only pennies per minute.

Hello Maria,

You can use french operator like Orange (is in all cities), cheaper solution could be to use bigh shop centers like Carrefour,... having there own mobile phone offers (by pre-payed cards, no contract). I don't know if there are some specific deals for international calls. Let me know if you need more information's, I'll try.

- Price is around 25-40 Euros (35-60 $US)
(first price for Orange is 39 Euros)

Carrefour http://mobile.carrefour.fr/packs.html (French)
For Montpellier Carrefour de LATTES (distance : 4.2 km)
Route de Carnon 34973 Lattes - tél : 04.67.99.70.00

But, don't expect too much support (or fluent english) in Carrefour.

Thank you so much for your detailed response. You're very kind and helpful.

Mightymazz, I will try the store in Beziers [Auchan) and get the pay as you go.

Sarastro, I took your advice and purchased a GSM tri band phone from Ebay. I also checked the website for service provider - quite informative with comparable rates. I'm not bringing a laptop, so I'll have to depend on using a cell phone.

Vinc Bilb, I will check with Carrefour when I get there.

Thanks again!

Additional suggestion: good informations on
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/france.html

Virgin have also some solutions...
Wish you a good trip, and I'm happy you didn't come before (it's raining all the days till 7 weeks: neither seen that before, south of France included)

Vincent

I was in Montpellier today and checked the Phone Store for options. There are many and many places to purchase SIMs. You should have no problems.