Getting mobile data in Britanny, France

[Fat Tone]

A friend is heading to somewhere rural in Britanny soon and needs to be able to stay in touch. He'll be taking his laptop, iPad and iPhone.

The iPhone will be ok, but he will ideally have a dongle for the laptop and a microsim for his iPad2 (its a 3G model).

Can anyone please advise on what it is possible to purchase, ideally ahead of time, to provide internet for the couple of weeks he is there?

Thanks,

Tony.

[dZeus]

Here's as much as I know

The cellphone networks in france are
Orange telecom (former state owned telecom provider)
SFR
Bouygues
Free (a new, not yet very established player for cellphone network)

personally I use a prepaid card from a virtual provider, a supermarket chain called E. Leclerc. They also offer internet prepaid which is ideal for short-term usage.
here's the link to their prepaid 3G data offerings. You can recharge online (needs a french bank account, maybe foreign credit cards work too?) or in one of their shops. I guess there should be plenty in Brittany as elsewhere in France. The monthly amount they state for the subscription offers will be taken off your prepaid balance. If the prepaid credit runs out, the card will saize working and be disabled permanently within a couple of weeks if you do not recharge it within that time.
I don't think they'll provide the SIM to customers abroad, but signing up at one of their hypermarkets is painless and quick (provided you bring your passport, which is a requirement for SIM cards in France). It goes without saying that you'll need to have an unlocked 3G dongle to use the SIM.

Note that they state 'Les usages modem, voix sur IP, peer to peer, newsgroups sont interdits.'. No idea how they check though, and if it matters if it will only be for a short time.

[Fat Tone]

Many thanks, I have passed that on.

Cheers

Tony.

[UtwigMU]

I'll be in NL Belgium tomorrow and following few days around Weert and Bruxelles.

[dZeus]

I'll be in NL Belgium tomorrow and following few days around Weert and Bruxelles.

Do you mean to say that you'd like to know similar info as Tony for the Netherlands and Belgium?

[UtwigMU]

No since there are bars with free wifi and I can chill and write business plans offline.

Are you anywhere close to Weert in NL?

[dZeus]

Not very close, as I'm in Lyon, France.

Umfriend might live near though?

[Umfriend]

I might, but I'm in Italy presently (having much better weather I understand).

[Fat Tone]

I was in Spain for the last two weeks and much of our bar-strategy revolved around which ones had free wifi as data roaming is still ridiculously expensive.

[UtwigMU]

I passed a windmill, so I must be in Holland and there is WiFi.

[Evildead666]

All MacDonaldin France have free Wifi as far as I know.
You don't asctually have to eat their food, just get a drink, and I think the wifi code is either on the ticket, or you have to ask for it.
That way you can synchronise your email etc for free.

I use the 'Free' mobile telephone where I only pay 2 euros a month for 60minutes and 60 texts.
I went over one month due to a few international calls, and it cost me 2.76 euros for the month

[dZeus]

The €2 free.fr subscription is nice when in France and calling to French numbers, but there are severe limitations outside of that usage:
- no calling to foreign numbers without buying special international credit
- many people complain on the net that roaming doesn't work with this subscription