Phone in France for 6 month stay

Anne, To begin with, are you aware of the restrictions of the Schengen Accord regarding stays longer than 90-days? Your situation is somewhat unique, so I'll have to give this some thought. However, I have a few initial thoughts. Something like the Direct Connect service offered by Roam Simple would seem to fit all your requirements. You'd be able to forward your home cell phone to that, as well as provide your clients with a local number to call. One point to consider is that due to the time difference, you'd likely be doing a lot of work in the evenings and perhaps "wee hours" of the morning. Using a VoIP service may not offer the same ease of connect for your clients in terms of a local number to call? That may also restrict you more to your apartment in France, whereas the Cellphone would allow mobility while still staying in touch with your clients. You wouldn't be able to respond to VoIP calls while you're out shopping at the local market (for example). Buying a Cellphone in France would provide the cheapest rates, however that wouldn't allow easy or cheap access for your clients. I'll have to ponder this question to see if I can find a good solution for you. Cheers!

Ken, I am aware of the Schengen requirements, and have applied for my long-stay visa. Quite a bit of paperwork!! Thanks for any help you can offer. I'll check out Roam Simple and see what they have.

The is a sign note but the question of of applying for a long term is frequently asked but rarely does anyone respond with the experience of having applied and received one. Use the trip report section to report on the process, what was required, and your success. It would be great information for everyone.

That's a good idea. When (and if) I get the visa approved, I'll post my experiences.

You may want to take a look at Vonage and Magic Jack for VoIP service. Both will allow you to pick a US number in most area codes and are reasonably priced. I know people overseas who use both and both can be good solutions depending on your specific needs/circumstances. Magic Jack is a USB device that plugs directly in to your computer and then you plug the phone in to the Magic Jack device. So, you cannot just pick up your laptop and move around without either disconnecting the Magic Jack or moving the phone, too. You also cannot make or receive calls if your laptop is not on. It's cheaper, though I've heard more complaints about voice quality. Vonage is a box that plugs in to your modem and then you plug the phone in to the box. So, it doesn't ever connect directly to your computer. You can make/receive calls when your computer is turned off, and it's not connected to your computer so it doesn't chain you to a specific desk or anything. It is more expensive than Magic Jack, though. I also believe that you can sign up for a service through Skype where you can have an actual phone number that people can call without having to use the Skype program. However, I don't know the specifics of how that works since i've never had an in-depth discussion about it with anyone who has that. Good luck!

I've used the Skype system where I have a local U.S. number that calls my Skype account. Several years ago I used it to forward calls to whatever foreign phone I was using. It would charge for the international forwarding, but it was fairly inexpensive. I was the party that paid for this charge. Clients simply called the U.S. number and had no idea what number it ultimately called. Here are the problems I had, though: The phone had to ring a really long time before it would switch over to forward to the other number. More importantly, the connection was not as reliable or as good as I would have liked. I ended up giving up on it and instructed a set of clients to call my U.S. cell which I turned on overseas. I paid for these calls, too, but at about $1 a minute rates (the rates are even higher today). Skype does have a Skype-to-go service that allows calling a local number to make an international call. They've changed the service recently, so I'm not up-to-date on all the features. I like Skype, but now only use it for outgoing calls. One other option: forward all your incoming calls on Sprint to voicemail and then periodically check them with a VOIP on your computer over wifi. Then you could use a VOIP to return the calls. Not perfect, but better than nothing. Or, get a google voice number (they're still free) and give that out to clients. Google voice won't forward to an international number yet, I don't believe, but that day is coming. What it will do, however, is transcribe voicemails and send a text and an email to wherever you direct. That way, you could see your voicemails moments after you were called and return them then. Once again, not perfect. There are other companies that sell forwarding services that would work for international calls. You might want to check them out, too. Good luck.

Skype worked well for calls back to the US from my Ipod - just a few cents a minute. I also used it to make a call within Spain (but you need to have a wifi connection). Since you will be primarily in one country, buying a phone there makes sense. We bought a cheap phone in Barcelona from Vodaphone (Orange is another similar company). A small Samsung phone was 25 euro and included ten euro in credit at 8 cents a minute. The downside was you had to stop by a Vodaphone store to add more minutes to your SIM. You can check out your options when you get there.