Using your iPhone in France

The iPhone is an essential tool when traveling to France for Americans. Google maps, travel guides, language translation, and many other apps are extremely useful. Using our United States, USA AT&T iPhone in France is tricky. Verizon iPhones from the USA do not work internationally. Here are some tips on using your iPhone in France. We also have an article on using iPhones in Hong Kong – using iPhones in China – using iPhones in France – using iPhones in the UK

Be sure to read our restaurant reviews for France:

Paris:

• Guy Savoy
• Le Cinq
• Other Paris Restaurant Reviews

Elsewhere:

• La Reserve de Nice, Nice
• Other France Restaurant Reviews

You can only use foreign SIM cards in an unlocked iPhone.  Jailbreaking and unlocking iPhones are not easy tasks.  (We use redsn0w.com and ultrasn0w.com) Be sure to change your default SSH password.

One slip and you may have bricked your expensive smartphone. We recommend buying a pre-jailbroken/unlocked used iPhone from eBay or Craigslist.  iPhone 3G’s typically cost around $150. Make sure you carry a paper clip with you.

This article also applies to the iPhone 4 andiPad 3G, but you need to cut the SIM into a microSIM.

The main cellphone carriers in France are SFR, Orange, and Bouygues Telecom. We learned from our trip that SFR is the most economical for American travelers with iPhones or other smartphones.

We bought our SIM card from a local SFR store for 14€ with 10€ of calling credit. We signed up for a short term plan called SFR La Carete seul for 20 days that costs 20€ and included unlimited mobile internet.

3 € top-up – 24hr unlimited internet
10 € top-up – 7-days unlimited internet
20 € top-up – 20-days unlimited internet
24 € top-up – 20-days unlimited internet + 10 € calling credit

Have the store activate the phone and load the card.

Manually set these iPhone Data settings: (Settings – General – Network – Cellular Data Network)

• APN: sl2sfr
• AFN: sl2sfr
• Username: Leave blank
• Password: Leave blank

Turn your iPhone off and on again to get the new settings to load.

You can call 500 or Text 22213 to see your credit balance.  The default PIN is 1234

These instructions should work for other smartphones including Android based smartphones that support US GSM networks from AT&T and T-Mobile.