WiFi and Data roaming in Paris

How is the WiFi in Paris?

Using WiFi in Paris, you’ll find most hotels and apartments such as if you booked through ‘Airbnb‘ will have free WiFi to use while you’re there!  However, what about when you’re on the go exploring Paris, how will you stay connected?

For free WiFi in Paris there are zones such as the Champs-Elysées, the area around the Notre-Dame and some of the parks in Paris labelled as free WiFi zones – but often, the connection is slow and it’s difficult to connect! You can also find Wifi in the public libraries, some museums as well as some cafés – however the quality and speed will vary a lot and some places don’t have it at all.

A good alternative for access to WiFi in Paris is a cool co-working café called Hubsy – it is our personal favourite in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris! Slightly different from other cafés – you can drink unlimited outstanding lattés and other types of drinks while you work for only 5€ per hour! Here you pay for the time rather than the drinks, a cool concept to try out. This is also a great saving tip if you’re on a budget while travelling in Paris – often a good coffee can cost you the best part of 5€!

A great blogger, Heather, one of our partners here at INSIDR, wrote a great article about connectivity in Paris!

How to use your own mobile phone in Paris

To use your own phone while travelling abroad to Paris and to avoid roaming fees it’s a little bit more complicated than it seems. Firstly, you have to have your cell phone unlocked and compatible with tri-band/GSM, once you have this you can buy a sim card in Paris which are available at electronic shops such as Free. The price of local calls in France are affordable but if you’re interesting in how to make international calls and use a lot of mobile data, it will start to be very expensive. The problem with French sim contracts is that the data is not cheap.

How to avoid roaming fees in Paris

We all know roaming fees are extortionate, so the best way to avoid roaming fees abroad is to go into your personal settings on your phone, turn off ‘mobile data’ and ‘data roaming’. You should also turn off any applications that use data in the background or sync automatically and download offline apps for Paris!

If you’re travelling to Paris on a budget but still want to stay connected, the best, cheapest and easiest way is to rent one of our INSIDR smartphones! With low costs and direct delivery you can have a cellphone rental in Paris that will make your stay stress-free. You will have unlimited data and connectivity with high speed 4G data all over Paris. With our ‘Community’ app on all the phones you are directly in contact with over 60 Parisians to give their expertise and advice on making the most out of your stay in Paris!