I stayed very well-connected for two weeks in France in the summer of 2015, thanks to an Orange (the huge French carrier) SIM card in my iPad Air. I was so pleased with how well this worked that I am posting here for to share with others.
[UPDATE: If you have an American iPhone or iPad and are traveling overseas, first check out the Apple Sim Card (which has gotten better) option at your local Apple Store. Don't go anywhere with only one option or you could be stuck. See the end of this post.]
[UPDATE: If you have an American iPhone or iPad and are traveling overseas, first check out the Apple Sim Card (which has gotten better) option at your local Apple Store. Don't go anywhere with only one option or you could be stuck. See the end of this post.]
There's plenty of talk about how to stay connected while traveling. The technology you are trying to connect with and the solutions available for it changes, so it's hard to know if the solutions are applicable to your situation. So to be specific - I purchased my "Wi-Fi + Cellular" (Verison) iPad Air in the US in early 2014. (See comment at the end of this post about Apple SIM, which only works with iPad Air 2 and iPhone6 and beyond.)
Once in Paris, I walked into an Orange store (Do a map search for "orange" and "Paris." They're all over.) on Boulevard Saint Germain, where a geek by the name of Mattieu explained that their "Lets Go Prepaid" SIM card has 2gigs and is "plug-and-play." (2gigs for 15 Euros is a great deal, already half of what Verizon charges me for the same.) I paid with cash. He photocopied my Passport. That was it.
Please note that reçu says "Lets Go Prepaid" but the instruction manual says "Internet-in-a-box." Whatever. Orange will likely always have some sort of SIM available for tablets. I'm posting the French and English instructions, but not the many more pages of French legal and technical stuff.
As you can see there's something called "Orange Wi-Fi" (BTW French pronounce it "wee fee") that I never used. Orange has Wi-Fi installed here and there (esp in Paris) and you're supposed to be able to use that instead of the celluar when available.
I used my thusly cellular-enabled iPad a LOT while all over France. Didn't stream anything but I did use google maps as my GPS in cities, along with my usual heavy news surfing and photography work (think original size jpgs). I used wifi at cousins' houses. Anyway, two weeks and there was still a lot of juice left on the Orange SIM. Going to settings and making it so that most apps didn't use Cellular Data surely helped. I never had to top it off with more funds though I did get messages asking me to do so.
Other thoughts:
* I'm always cautious when someone trying to sell me something says it "should" work or is "supposed" to work. I know they mean well, but my mother signed up for AT&T's international texting-only plan on her iPhone6 and it only worked when it wanted to. It was nice to buy the Orange SIM right there in an Orange store and make sure it worked before I was on my way.
* Apple has something called Apple SIM, available at Apple Stores for US$5, for iPad 2 and iPhone6 and beyond. You plug it in your device and then are supposed to be prompted to choose a local carrier and then buy a plan from that carrier. This sounds really nice. This would allow you to have connectivity before you're even through customs. I have to believe the Orange SIM is better deal. And there's no "supposed" to risk involved. So my final advice: Get an Apple SIM card, and if that doesn't work when you arrive, go to the nearest Orange store.
