What exactly are we paying for? All. Calls, texts, data, voicemail consultation (billed as a call to France). Basically:once you have crossed the border, no more package with all-inclusive menu, you consume everything à la carte (by the minute, by sms, by the number of bytes used). Call reception is also chargeable:the person who calls us pays as if we were in France, we pay the difference between France and the country in which we are (more or less depending on the place, therefore) . Only exception:receiving sms is free.
And the Internet, is it free? Yes, if we use Wi-Fi. Otherwise, we are careful with 3G and mobile Internet in general. Because abroad, we pay by the byte:the more we download, the more we go to sites that consume bandwidth (such as YouTube, maps, music sites, etc.), the more we will end up with a bill XXL. Ditto, if we do not deactivate the " push " function, which allows the automatic reception of all our emails, we risk paying dearly for it.
Is it cheaper if we go to Europe? Yes. The rates are capped:€0.51 max per minute for a call made to a landline or mobile in France, €0.23 max per minute for receiving a call and €0.13 per text message (compared to around €1 , if you call from the USA to France).
To avoid unpleasant surprises? In Europe, it's automatic:as soon as our Internet consumption exceeds €50, we are notified by our operator. For the rest of the world, you must call your customer service before leaving if you want to be notified in case of overrun. The formula differs according to each one but roughly speaking, it allows you to know when you cross the limits, to go there smoothly.
Thanks to Yves Le Mouël, General Manager of the French Federation of Telecoms.
