how to use Cell phone in France

Are you taking your US number with you or buying a SIM card (with a French number) once you get there? If you are taking your US number, people would call you from the US the same way they always do. If you get a French SIM, they would call country code, etc. As for calling another cell phone, I haven't done that.

Kristina, are you saying that you will be using your U.S. cell phone with an account from a U.S. carrier? (Presumably T-Mobile or AT&T?) If so, then callers from the U.S. will just dial your number as normal. Yes, your phone will be overseas, but the phone network will route the call to wherever you are. No need for your callers to know where you are and dial anything special. Here's an analogy: If you are outside your area code in the U.S., your callers from home don't have to dial an area code to reach you. They just call your 7-digit number as if you were still in your area code zone. The network knows you are out of area and it sends the call where it needs to go. Same principle applies to calls overseas. (Note that you'll pay the costs of making an international call. Your callers will not.) For a call overseas to your phone number, callers in France have to make a call as if they were calling to the U.S. The call goes to the U.S. and then gets rerouted back to where you actually are located. The country code callers from France need to use is not the one for France (33) but the one for the U.S., which is the "1" we dial when making a long-distance call. (Having number 1 as the country code is the perk the U.S. gets for rolling out the first phone system, I suppose.) So they'd dial the international direct dialing prefix, then 1, then area code, then phone number. Example: 011-1-202-555-1212. Note that the international direct dialing prefix is sometimes different. The safest course if dialing from a cell is to hold the zero key until a "+" appears. That will get the call international access. Then follow with country code and phone number.

To call from one U.S. cell phone number to another U.S. cell phone number while both are out of the U.S., one must dial as if they were calling to the U.S. By-the-way, there is no problem with programming the international access number, country code, area code, and phone number in your phone book, just as there isn't an issue with putting in "1" plus area code and number for U.S. numbers. If you are not outside the U.S. or outside your area code, don't worry, the call will work and you won't be charged for a long distance or international call if you do so. I programmed my family's phones so all the numbers we might need were set so they would call from anywhere. The U.S. analogy: If you only put 7-digit numbers in your phone book but are outside your area code, the call won't work correctly. That's why I put 1 plus the 10-digit number in my contacts list. Example of how I'd program my parents' number: +1-205-555-1212. Note that the "plus" makes the call work even if I'm out of the country.

Besides not fully understanding how to dial while in Europe there is the added frustration of the audio instructions in French. Just having the phone is the easy part. I suggest having the store add the minutes to your phone. Adding whatever numbers you think you'll need is also a good idea.

Just be careful you understand how the phone works. You need to call your phone carrier and provide the card number, so they can activate it. Then before you leave, you must call again to change to international service. I have Verizon. I have an unlimited data plan in the US, but have to pay in Europe. I am not a big data user, but have reached 374 mb in this belling cycle. I paid $30 for 25 mb of data. After that it is20.38 per MG of usage. You need to turn off all 3g and use the apps only in a wifi spot. I actually wish I had not purcahsed the international ready phone, and just borrowed one, like I used to do.