Need input on Paris airport transfer

smigaldi said:
Is this his US sim?

Is he dialing using IDD correctly?

He should just use the + code and then '1' followed by the 10 digit number when calling the US. When callin in country (France) he still needs to dial using the '+" sign and '33' followed by the French number.
Click to expand...

The most common mistake. To call the states:

+1 617 254 1030

Always make sure you have the + key on there. You absolutely need it.

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
Just for what it is worth - I've yet to have a foreign cell phone work in France. I even had a GSM phone I bought in London, which worked everywhere else on the continent - refuse to work in France.
 
woodstock said:
Just for what it is worth - I've yet to have a foreign cell phone work in France. I even had a GSM phone I bought in London, which worked everywhere else on the continent - refuse to work in France.
Click to expand...

And I've never had trouble in France. I've used (the ancient) Sprint Spectrum, Cincinnati Bell, AT&T (pre-Cingular), AT&T/Cingular (post Cingular), and T-Mobile.

Might be the France Telecom workers were on strike when yout tried...
 
wsuffa said:
And I've never had trouble in France. I've used (the ancient) Sprint Spectrum, Cincinnati Bell, AT&T (pre-Cingular), AT&T/Cingular (post Cingular), and T-Mobile.

Might be the France Telecom workers were on strike when yout tried...
Click to expand...

Same here. But I've always manually switched my network from the default to whatever network works (especially true in India)

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
woodstock said:
Just for what it is worth - I've yet to have a foreign cell phone work in France. I even had a GSM phone I bought in London, which worked everywhere else on the continent - refuse to work in France.
Click to expand...
I have never had trouble in France with my phone.
I have used it in the UK, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, China, Israel, Macao, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Canada and not had any issues except the very first time I brought it overseas. T-Mobile had a stupid rule about international roaming. I had the service, verified it before I went over, but they require you to still call them upon your first entry to a roaming location. Of course you CANNOT call cause they do not allow calls to go through until you verify you are overseas. But once I did that it has worked ever since.
 
I talked to him a few minutes ago. His phone started working when he got into Spain. He's in Roncesvalles now. The sim card we bought for spain doesn't work however. He dials all the numbers on the card, gets a recorded message in Spanish, then gets hung up on. His US sim card is working however. Go figure. He said his phone never showed it was getting any signal in France.

He had a great day, walked 20 or so miles into the mountains. He said it's some of the most beautiful country he's ever seen. He met four guys this morning - one from Germany, one from Spain, two from somewhere else, and has walked and visited with them all day today. They shared food and drink all day and agreed to walk together tomorrow, then split up to meet more people. He's having a great time now that the travel is behind him.
 
astanley said:
The most common mistake. To call the states:

+1 617 254 1030

Always make sure you have the + key on there. You absolutely need it.

Cheers,

-Andrew
Click to expand...

Yea, but he doesn't know anyone at 617 254 1030 so that won't work for him.
 
gibbons said:
He had a great day, walked 20 or so miles into the mountains. He said it's some of the most beautiful country he's ever seen. He met four guys this morning - one from Germany, one from Spain, two from somewhere else, and has walked and visited with them all day today. They shared food and drink all day and agreed to walk together tomorrow, then split up to meet more people. He's having a great time now that the travel is behind him.
Click to expand...
Wow, how cool! :yes: This is such a wonderful opportunity for him! :yes: Now you can maybe worry a little less?
 
gibbons said:
He said his phone never showed it was getting any signal in France.
Click to expand...

Wonder if France is using a GSM frequency that's not in his phone. Need a quad-band phone to cover all the US and Int'l frequencies. I'd bet that his phone isn't capable of the frequencies that ATT has roaming agreements with in France....

gibbons said:
Yea, but he doesn't know anyone at 617 254 1030 so that won't work for him.
Click to expand...

Try 867-5309 and ask for Jenny.... :goofy:
 
wsuffa said:
Wonder if France is using a GSM frequency that's not in his phone. Need a quad-band phone to cover all the US and Int'l frequencies. I'd bet that his phone isn't capable of the frequencies that ATT has roaming agreements with in France....



Try 867-5309 and ask for Jenny.... :goofy:
Click to expand...
France is using the same bands that are in Spain. And if it was the phone the SMS would not be working as that uses the same frequencies as the voice and control channels.

Sounds more like he is using a pre-pay card that is not working on a certain operator's system.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
My phone doesn't have a + key.
Click to expand...


I was wondering about that on my phone as well. I'm not able to enter a + when using the keypad to dial a call. But if i go in and edit a contact's number I can add a + before the number. I have an iPhone.
 
bjohnson said:
I was wondering about that on my phone as well. I'm not able to enter a + when using the keypad to dial a call. But if i go in and edit a contact's number I can add a + before the number. I have an iPhone.
Click to expand...

I just played with my phone a bit, and found that if I pressed *, it showed a *, and if I pressed * again, it changed to a +. But, that said, I never realized it was literally to be entered in the dial string! Like the 'hyphens' or 'parentheses' used to delineate groups of numbers or area codes, I figured the + was just to indicate visually to you that you're dialing a country code. I've dialed the UK many times from the US, never entered a + before (on a landline and a cell phone). Is this 'dialing the +' only needed when dialing from International locations?
 
'+' code dialing game form the SMG group which evolved into 3GPP. Those are the guys that do the standards for GSM, HSDPA, HSUPA, WCDMA, etc. There initial charge was to develop a cellular system that worked across Europe. What they came up with was GSM. Part of that was to develop a man/machine interface that was also standard and one of the sub parts of that project led to the rise of a single way to dial internationally. See each country has it's own way of getting to the IDD (International Direct Dial). Some countries such as the US use 011, while many use 00 or just 01. To simplify that in the cell phones you enter the '+' at the beginning of the number followed by the country code and then the phone number. Then at the mobile switch that plus is coded into the proper IDD code to go out on the SS7 lines that the terrestrial switches will understand.
 
Good info, Scott. Gotta love standards... There are so many of them, you can find one that will do what you want. :-)
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Good info, Scott. Gotta love standards... There are so many of them, you can find one that will do what you want. :-)
Click to expand...

There is another one that is really good that most people do not realize and I helped write. It is called the GECO standard. GECO stands for Global Emergency Call Origination. Again the issue is because each country has a different way of accessing emergency service via telephone. Int he US we know about 911, but how many people realize in the UK it is 999? Or even in parts of Europe it is 112?

So the cellphone systems are programmed so that if you type any of them in the mobile switch will route the call to the local emergency call center.
 
smigaldi said:
'+' code dialing game form the SMG group which evolved into 3GPP. Those are the guys that do the standards for GSM, HSDPA, HSUPA, WCDMA, etc. There initial charge was to develop a cellular system that worked across Europe. What they came up with was GSM. Part of that was to develop a man/machine interface that was also standard and one of the sub parts of that project led to the rise of a single way to dial internationally. See each country has it's own way of getting to the IDD (International Direct Dial). Some countries such as the US use 011, while many use 00 or just 01. To simplify that in the cell phones you enter the '+' at the beginning of the number followed by the country code and then the phone number. Then at the mobile switch that plus is coded into the proper IDD code to go out on the SS7 lines that the terrestrial switches will understand.
Click to expand...

Constant battle for me when I was on the phones at T-Mo. Some reps would insist that customers dial 011. I tried to explain that it wouldn't necessarily work everywhere, and that the international standard is + dialing.

Customers would get confused. I'd explain it by saying "Hey - you ever see a British phone number ad? Ever see it without the +44? I win, do it my way."
 
gibbons said:
For you European travelers... I'm looking at an itinerary that calls for landing at De Gaulle airport in France at 7:20 am and a flight out of Orly airport at 10:15 am. Is 3 hours enough time to get across Paris and check in for the second flight? The flight into De Gaulle is Northwest and the flight out of Orly is Air France.

Would you be comfortable booking this itinerary?
Click to expand...

I would definitely not book that, it's undoable unless you do the transfer in a helicoper or light plane. My option would be to fly into Paris a day or two (or week or two...) ahead of time, relax, enjoy the food, the art, the wine, and catch the onward flight later.
 
Anymouse said:
You might consider Madrid and taking the train from there. Not sure if he wants to do anything else, but if he does want to explore other parts of the country, the Eurail pass rules!!
Click to expand...

When I was 14, a Eurail pass ruled. Now, I can rent a car cheaper. They have really gotten out of hand on the Eurail passes, hell, rail travel in general through Europe, and the service has really gone to hell as well. When I was there a couple of years ago, it was a freakin nightmare. Renting a car from Luxauto was easy and cheap.
 
Henning said:
When I was 14, a Eurail pass ruled.
Click to expand...
Eurorail was for tourists. I am surprised you did not get an interrail pass. That one works for every country except the one you buy it in. Instead of 1st class you go 2nd class and the prices was about 1/3 of the Eurorail.

I would buy mine in the UK where I lived, then take the ferry to France our the Netherlands, or even grab a hop into Germany and go everywhere for about $50 a month.
 
smigaldi said:
Eurorail was for tourists. I am surprised you did not get an interrail pass. That one works for every country except the one you buy it in. Instead of 1st class you go 2nd class and the prices was about 1/3 of the Eurorail.

I would buy mine in the UK where I lived, then take the ferry to France our the Netherlands, or even grab a hop into Germany and go everywhere for about $50 a month.
Click to expand...


I could buy a 3 month all access unlimited milage firstclass/sleeper class Eurail pass for $350 IIRC from the States a few months ahead of time on some deals, and have it in hand upon landing so I could get to all my relatives in Germany, as well as travel all of Europe all summer on the same pass. Considering I could use it for my hotel room taking sleeper cars and night trains, there was no way to beat the deal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top