Some good tips for people visiting France
France Telecom is going to make you love the Matrix of the year 2000...

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FT : our big dwarfs

  What you'd better know :
  Some people say that France used to be an almost communist country a few years ago. Lots of public companies were (or still are) State run, such as the rail, the mail, the electricity providing, few banks, Renault, France Telecom, etc.
  Things moved in a better way according others.
  Thinks to the European Union, the French National Operator, so called France Télécom, had to be privatized : that gives the evidence France isn't a communist country anymore...
  France Telecom ranked a high position in the French stock exchange. Its shares raised very quickly. (I wish I bought some !) The bad effect of that was to increase the national call fees to be profitable. That's what happened 5 years ago, to prepare France Telecom to be privatized. The good effect of that, is to make you free to choose your phone operator, in theory. In the reality, since January, 1st, 1998, you can choose the operator you want for non-local calls, that is to say, for at least 30 km calls.
  From the French public phones, you can phone either through France Telecom or others operators through prepaid cards but the best prices take effect for private phone devices.

  How does it work :

from a public phone
  • a FT card (sold in every tobacco or paper office) is good for local communications. A card has units : 1 unit = 3 minuts of local communication at least (twice as much during 19h-8h in week, on the whole week-end and bank holidays, always after the 3 first minuts),
  • you can also get others paid phone cards, just ask to every tobacco or paper office,
  • at the end, some public phones accept international credit cards, the communication fees are the same than ones with a 50 units FT card, after a minimum of FRF 9.80 per call (for foreign cards only).
from a private phone
  • a free subscription to 9Telecom (0800 959 959) allows you to phone for low prices only for non-local calls, dialing 9 instead of the first 0,
  • a free subscription to First:Telecom (0800 70 45 67) allows you to phone for low prices to mobile phones and international calls, dialling first 3039. In addition, you can also use this operator from a public phone, dialing first 3064 but only for non-local communications.
In any cases, a FRF 78.- per month basic subscription is needed to be connected to the FT phone network. However, in many French towns, others operators can link you to the world, such as Lyonnaise de Câble which uses the optical cable technology. For most users, that could be the best solution...
with a mobile phone I have no advice for you if you plan to use it very often. If you think you'll be using it very few, the best choice is Mobicarte by France Telecom. A FRF 70.- recharge every 8 months allows you to phone for approximately 15 minutes during the first 2 months and to be called during the 6 months remaining. That's what I choosed, I've no regret. In addition, Mobicarte offers you the possibility to see your correspondant phone number. Personnaly, I decided to suppress my Mobicarte ansafone to prevent people from paying when I'm not available. (I prefer them to live me a message on my home ansafone, it's far less expensive for them !, and I don't want to check my Mobicarte ansafone which is not free if I've no credit remaining.)

  The French version of these good tips is more explicit but for "selfish experts" only. I don't want to bother you. My advices in this page are enough to make you save quiet lots of money when you'll be phoning...
  If you want better information, you may go to the French Telecommunication Regulation Authority.

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