FRENCH MOBILE LANDLINE OR VOIPSERVICES!

[ace85driver]

Hello,

 

I was wondering if someone may have some information on local mobile servies offered in France. All French  mobile/voip/landline websites are obviously in French so much has been "lost in translation."

Here is what I'm trying to do:

Forward a US number to a French Mobile or VOIP or LANDLINE

So I need one of the following things:

1. Find a French Mobile carrier that accepts all incoming international calls for free, no matter where they are coming from. This would be the most ideal.

or

2. A VOIP that offers free call forwarding to a French Mobile and unlimited incoming to that VOIP.

or

3. A French Land Line that offers free incoming (international ) and call forwarding to a French Mobile

 

 

 

 

[Racerbear02]

Try   www.voipstunt.com

This is a VOIP service as its name suggests, you can purchase a number from your country of origin,  I live in France but I got a UK number without problem  They give you a UK ( or in your case US)  number for 10 Euros for 90 days, which you can then divert to any landline for free, or a mobile at 18 Eurocents a minute which comes off your initial 10 Euro payment. It may not meet all of your requirements but it will certainly go a fair way towards what you ask.

Voipstunt is also free to most landlines in the world from your computer, or for 5 Eurocents per call,  you can use your ordinary landline, thus avoiding any of the typical VOIP problems.

It is slightly more complex than I have explained, but not much, and in my experience the quality of call is generally superior to Skype.

I have no connection with Voipstunt, other than as a very satisified customer.

[Deimos]

You say in the first part of the question that you need the call to be to a Mobile, VoIP or Landline in France, but then each of the 3 options you ask about are to a French mobile. Terminating in a French mobile and for free would be difficult.

Do you need a French mobile, VoIP or Landline - as the difference is significant.

Ian

[ace85driver]

A French land line is what I need but here are the conditons:

1. free incoming  to the French fixed line (specificaly from the U.S)

2. free call forwarding ( I would like to forward a local fixed French number to a local French mobile carrier)

This is what I'm trying to do:

 

1. Forward U.S mobile to French landline (which is free on the U.S side)

2. Forward Frech landline to the Frech mobile

 

[Deimos]

I think you will find that, in France when you receive a call on your PSTN landline you do not pay for the call. The French landline end can receive calls for free - the person making the call pays.

Unfortunately businesses need to make money. If they divert calls from a French landline to a French mobile then the mobile service provider will charge (they need to stay in business and they tend to do this but charging people for the services they provide). Thus you will have a long search to find a free call forward French PSTN landline to French mobile.

At the end of the day somebody somewhere will have to pay for the service. What you need to think about is who you want to pay - yourself of the people in the states making the call. There are ways you can reduce the charges for people calling you by directing them VoIP for (part) of the link.

You need to think carefully about what you really want as each time your requirements keep changing. Firstly we had Landline OR mobile OR VoIP. Then we had all calls for FREE to a French mobile and now we have calls to a French mobile OR a landline (VoIP has disappeared.

Are you going to have a broadband connection in France (bearing in mind the normal min. contract term for this is a year and then you have to write all sorts of formal letters with J'accuse .. reception" to cancel the contract. If so, are you happy to receive incoming calls on your computer or through broadband (computer allows for lower costs to those in the US calling you, broadband would allow you to make cheaper calls). A lot might depend on who will be calling you. A few people from the same area in the US ? With or without computers ?

Have a think about what you really want because there are so many options - which is best depends on individual requirements.

Ian

[ace85driver]

Deimos,

Thank you for all your help. I plan on having broad band and it would be no problem to fullfil a one year contact. It doesn't matter if my phone is a voip or a landline. What does matter is that I have call forwarding either through a land-line or voip. As far as people in the U.S being charged for a call, that's not a problem.

I was under the imperssion that most incoming local calls to a French mobile are no charge. Is this true? All I want is a voip or landline that will allow me to forward my local French number to my local Frech mobile.

So what you are telling me is that I will be charged for incoming calls to the Frech mobile.....

Is that true?

[BJSLIV]

European mobiles do not have the USA habit of charging for incoming calls, except when they are being used outside their home country. Therefore any French mobile used in France will take any calls thrown at it, whatever the source, without charge. Its the person making , or forwarding ,the call who pays

[Deimos]

When you forward your landline to your French mobile, the caller from the US pays for the call between themselves and your landline. You pay for the call between your landline and your mobile (on our landline bill).

The costs of this depend on how the call arrives at your landline/computer (i.e. who you have a telecom account with). Some VoIP services will support call forwarding to a telephone, but they will charge you for that.

Many people manage with an answering machine and call people back. To those people who might want to contact you urgently, then give them both your landline and mobile (so they can call you on e.g. landline and then if no answer/answerphone, call your mobile). You need to be very organised to keep a divert working decently. If you use a divert on no answer and are "temporarily indisposed" then a call wil divert to your mobile. If you manually set the divert you are forever setting/unsetting and forgetting to set/unset the divert.

Probably the best answer in this regard is the "converged service" currently offered by Orange (in the UK and "selected European countries" - nothing about it in France yet). Its too early to say how well it works in practice but in theory should be excellent. Although there are currently only 3 handsets available for such services they are OK ones (with cameras, all the normal stuff). That would give you the advantages of both GMS and VoIP (through UMA - with call handover between GSM and UMA as you move in and out of WiFi coverage). How long it would be until available in France is anybodies guess and is is not cheap - but does give you the convenience of a single phone operating over both media transparently.

Ian

[ace85driver]

Deimos,

 

I'm not worried about charges on the U.S end of a phone transmission, they are free. However, I'm concerned about charges incurred on the French land line side. What do you normally pay when you call a local mobile? Also what do most local carriers charge for call forwarding? Call diverting as you called is normally a free service for U.S landlines, voip, and even some mobiles. So based on what you are telling me I will have to pay for 2 services:

1. a local phone call from my French land-line to a French mobile

and

2. a cost for call diverting

[Deimos]

The cost of call divert as a facility is not great (if anything) e.g. France Telecom,charge €1,50 per month, others may charge more or less or nothing. A lot depends on you phone system provider.

However, do not think of calls to a mobile as a "local call". Calls to mobiles are not cheap, though the actual cost will again depend on who provides you landline services and on what basis (e.g. degrouped, with pre-selection or without pre-selection). It is virtually impossible to say what it would cost as the best way to do it depends on the service provider and the number of calls you are receiving diverted to your mobile, when you are getting them, etc. Evenings and weekends or 24/24 makes a difference. Also, how many local (within France) calls will you be making from you landline as your mobile call costs might depend on what "package" for landline calls you went for. Some providers do offer unlimited calls to specific mobiles (evenings and weekends or 24/24). For example, France Telecom currently offering unlimited calls from a specific landline (at the same address as the billing address) to a specific mobile(s) (yours again - same billing address) for 29€ per month. Sounds great but its limited to the first 60 000 applicants so you may miss it. Who knows what offers will be available when you get to France.

I'm afraid there are too many variables and the offers are continually changing. Best you can do is to know whet you expect your usage pattern is likely to be then check with service providers when you arrive. Some of these type of deals may have contract times (i.e. once you take them out you are committed to them for e.g. 12 months).

By the way, are you sure its free to call France from the US ? for example, AT&T with virtually all of their packages (i.e. the ones with limited or unlimited free national calls) do not include free international calls. With MCI you can subscribe to an International low call rate package but you still pay for the calls, etc., etc.

You might be best to use a VoIP system that would give free divert and pay a low rate for calls to the mobile - but if you get a lot of calls (or long calls) you may find it better to go for a fixed "traditional" provider package. You could get/buy a local US number linked to a VoIP account which would allow you to divert calls to a mobile at a low'ish rate (provided your computer was on and working, etc.) - but a lot of or long calls and you might be better off with a fixed price package. So many pro's and cons it takes an age to collect the info then design the best solution (which is why companies pay for such consultancy).

Ian