Before June 2017, the mobile phone with a French chip was the bane of cross-border commuters.
Above all, you should not use it in Germany, Belgium or Luxembourg, otherwise you will often end up with a daunting off-price.
Remember!
Receiving a call on your French mobile in Luxembourg or Germany cost 19 centimes more per minute.
Making a call from a neighboring country to France cost 43 cents more.
Texting was 11 cents.
But the worst was for those who used the internet via the mobile data network: the megabyte cost €1 (when you look at your emails for 2 minutes, you use about 30 MB, it made the bill explode).
Before 2017, the most addicted to the phone therefore had two packages: a French package and a Luxembourg or German package to use on the other side of the border.
The French were able to realize the price difference between France and our neighbors and this time around… the advantage was for us!
For once, it is the Germans who dream of having French prices on their telephone plans.
Since June 15, 2017, roaming charges have become free, your French operator can no longer charge you extra on telephone, SMS and MMS when you use your package in EU countries,
We owe this measure to the European Union, which wanted to create a kind of “euro” for mobile phones.
There is still a trap to avoid for those who use the internet
The phone, SMS, MMS are unlimited when you are in Luxembourg, Belgium or Germany, you use your plan as if you were in France… as much for the internet, some operators still apply restrictions.
Take a good look at the details of your package: either your data package is fully usable in Europe as in France and in this case, no problem.
Either it’s only part of your package: 15 GB out of the 50 you have, for example.
The restrictions are especially valid for low-cost operators like red by sfr, b and you or sosh.
But overall you will always have a good part of data to surf the Internet without surplus from our neighbors on their 3G or 4G networks (for 5G, it depends on your package).
Holders of a French SIM card even have an advantage over Germans, Belgians or Luxembourgers
They can choose the network they want to use (basically, with a French mobile in Luxembourg, Belgium or Germany, it’s as if you subscribed to ALL OPERATORS IN THE COUNTRY).
You can let the phone choose the best network for you, it’s the base setting of your device…or you can choose it.
Just go to your phone’s “settings” then “SIM card” – “mobile networks” – “disable automatic network selection” and choose!
In Luxembourg, the best network is that of Orange Luxembourg.
In Germany, it’s Telekom.de or Vodafone.
And in Belgium, it’s Proximus.
Remember to reactivate automatic selection once you return to France, otherwise your telephone will not return to the French network.