At last, cheap 3G internet?

[YCCMB]

I just started my annual (and normally fruitless) search for cheap internet access whilst in France, as I am too tight to pay for a service I don't use year-round, and too disorganised to opt for the FT/Orange "switch it on and off" broadband sans engagement, because I don't see myself remembering to cancel it before I've got there and used it, if you follow me.

Anyway, chatting to Mr Betty, who usually doesn't care about the interweb, he asked if there was a similar system to the "Ligne residence secondaire" for internet, and I explained the complexities of the current system, which reminded me to start my annual trawl for other alternatives, and I found THIS:

[url]http://www.cle-3g.fr/cle-3g-sans-engagement-bouygues/[/url]

For the non French speakers among us, basically this is a dongle offering you 500Mb of data per month to use as and when you wish (equating roughly to about an hour of browsing and such per day) for €9.90 a month on a contract you can cancel whenever you like. Add to that the purchase of the cheapest dongle (€19.90) or a dearer one at €39.90 which will operate as a Wifi device and allow you to connect up to a further 5 devices (I don't know why you would, but you could!) and it certainly seems to be the best and most cost-effective deal for occasional internet use I've found so far. I hope to be able to find out shortly what happens if you cancel and then wish to start it up again on a subsequent visit, but at the current exchange rate I wouldn't be entirely averse to keeping it running when I'm not in France. It appears that the deal also gives you access to all the Bouygues Wifi hotspots, too, so if you're out and about with your laptop and want to get online at one of those, you'll save your paid-for minutes as the Wifi is free.

[NormanH]

The big advantage of that is that you can cancel when you wish.

It is the same price as the Orange one that I had, but which never worked, but that required a 2 year subscription.

I don't know how good 3g coverage is in the countryside. Orange 3g was dodgy in my town.

[YCCMB]

Norman, seems it's the same price, but for much more data per month.

I'm hopeful with Bouygues. It's certainly the signal which works best in my house on my mobile mobile, including picking up e-mails and using the internet.

[Théière]

Worth checking on your mobile if it's 3G to see who has a strong signal in your location. I was told SFR bought said dongle which works well but in my village SFA! It can be unlocked to use any network so I will pop in and get that done next week where it seems Orange have the coverage for the village.

[Quillan]

[quote user="Théière"]Worth checking on your mobile if it's 3G to see who has a strong signal in your location. I was told SFR bought said dongle which works well but in my village SFA! It can be unlocked to use any network so I will pop in and get that done next week where it seems Orange have the coverage for the village.[/quote]

Excellent point. We are the other way round, Orange has barely a signal (and even then you need to lean out an upstairs window) yet SFR gives 5 by 5 reception.

[YCCMB]

True, Theiere..I've already done that. On my last visit I wondered why I hadn't been receiving e-mails on my Blackberry (I have 10Mb of free downloads per day, which is enough to check my mail and things) and discovered that nothing was coming through. For a day or so I let it pass, assuming I was just Nellie no-mates, than I discovered that my automatic network selection had opted for Orange which is almost non-existent in my house, so I switched to Bouygues and, hey presto, half a dozen e-mails suddenly got delivered!