There are many options for those wanting to remain in contact by phone: roaming with a North American provider, VoIP, Télécartes, or using a French mobile network just like the French do. Here is a rundown of providers offering pre paid cellphone plans:
Just a quick review of the requirements. Your GSM phone must be unlocked (allowing it to accept a different SIM than the one with which it came) and assuming you are using it in North America , it must be either a tri or quad band phone allowing you to receive GSM signals on the European bands (which differ from those in the US or Canada).
The prepaid minute, SIM market has a lot of choices and rates and features vary widely. Here is a rundown of the most popular French providers:
Orange retail outlets are widely available
SFR retail outlets are widely available
Bouygue retail outlets are widely available
http://www.bouyguestelecom.fr/
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Virtural GSM operators piggy-back upon one of the above networks but sell their products at reduced pricing offering arguable the lowest per minute cost available:
E. Leclerc
uses the SFR network
Carrefour
uses Orange
Auchan
uses SFR
Virgin
outlets widely available, uses the Orange network
Tele2
uses the Orange network
NRJ
http://www.nrjmobile.fr/visiteur/index.html
uses the SFR network
OMER Telecom
uses Orange
M6 Mobile
uses orange
uses SFR
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General GSM information is available here:
