Roaming in rural France / 800mhz / Band 20 / Bouygues / SFR / Orange / Free

[Sirly]

I'm currently with Vodafone (out of contract) and am considering coming back to EE. Before committing to EE, I would like to test the service both here in the UK and also while roaming in France.

Many of the transmitters in France (rural areas) use 800mhz, so 'testing' EE on a PAYG SIM will not be possible?

In an area I visit often, there is 'ok' SFR (800mhz) and reasonable Bouygues (1800mhz?) as well as weak Orange.

How will an EE SIM see these? I presume I'll need to manually switch according to signal strength? Does EE have a 'stronger' 'partnership' with any operator than the other? I've seen this list, but is it really any use? https://ee.co.uk/content/dam/ee-help/Help-PDFs/roaming_networks_27.02.18.pdf

Many thanks, and any advice on testing a PAYG SIM would be especially appleciated..

[bristolian]

Hi @Sirly and welcome to the EE community

The most current list of 4G roaming networks I can find is here , although there is rarely a guarantee of service where the use of foreign networks is concerned.

In terms of which frequency bands a foreign network will allow you to use, that is something you are unlikely to get an answer to, and is a very good example of trying the phone out in "real world" use

Ironically enough however, it is the UK where you will have issues. EE PAYG users don't have access to 4G-calling/VoLTE, and use of the "extended range" 800Mhz service relies on this. You will have full access to EE's B1 (2100Mhz), B3 (1800Mhz), B7 (2600Mhz) service for data use, but will have no access to B20 800Mhz service.

[Sirly]

@bristolian

Many thanks. That list is indeed the same I posted above, and includes all of the big players in France. This is interesting as Vodafone's 'partner' in France is listerd as SFR (only).

So, it's not the actual SIM card itself that won't access 800mhz signals, it's the tariff that EE assigns to the card that determines whether I can use B20? And therefore, whether I can use B20 in France or not will be soley be dependent on the roaming carrier's policy? (I'm guessing the roaming partner(s) will not be able to 'treat' an EE PAYG SIM differently to a pay monthly one?).

I'm hoping it's still worth trying a PAYG in France for a month purely to see if I can access a wider choice of (often patchy) masts in rural areas there before going full contract. This is where having a dual SIM phone helps too..

Thanks again in advance..

[bristolian]

Within the UK, a PAYG SIM cannot attach to any VoLTE facility - and this prevents access to any Band20 carrier.

How roaming partners authenticate, is potentially different. I don't know for sure, but I very strongly doubt that PAYG users could use VoLTE abroad. I would certainly be interested in your experiences!

The billing mechanism for PAYG roaming is fundamentally different to that of pay-monthly roaming, so it's quite feasible the authentication system could also vary.