Calling a French cellphone?

February 19, 2006 7:21 PM

I have a US Verizon Wireless cellphone. I want to call a French Cingular cellphone (somehow it can also work on T-Mobile - maybe its a roaming thing?). Country code + # isn't working. I'm very confused.
posted by devilsbrigade to technology (11 comments total)

There should be a city code as well, I believe. Like if you're calling Paris, it'd be 011 + 33 (country code) + 1 (city code for Paris) + number. If you know the city they're from, you can get those codes here.
posted by Gator at 7:34 PM on February 19, 2006

You may need to contact your carrier to have international calling activated.
posted by Yorrick at 7:37 PM on February 19, 2006

If the French number is, for example, 01.23.45.67.89, you need to remove the first 0 when you're calling from abroad. So it would be 011+33+1+23+45+67+89.
posted by srah at 7:42 PM on February 19, 2006

I think Yorrick has it...

I don't understand the technical details, but I had the same problem when calling certain foreign countries. I just gave up and dialed the number through a calling card.
posted by Brian James at 8:43 PM on February 19, 2006

I've been able to call Canada... does this not count as international anymore?
posted by devilsbrigade at 8:53 PM on February 19, 2006

Canada isn't truly international for cellphones [note the US and Canada both have 1 as their country code]. International calling has to be enabled usually for calling outside the US and Canada. Unless you have bad credit this can usually be turned on in an instant by calling 611.

There is no such thing as a French Cingular phone. If they have Cingular and are roaming in France, call their regular number US number and it will find them.

If they have a Cingular phone that was unlocked and now has a French SIM [and French phone number] you can just dial '+' [hold down the zero key until the plus sign appears] instead of worrying about the 011 part and then the country code.

As mentioned above you may need to not use the zero in front of the city code when calling from outside of France.

Keep in mind your friends at Verizon will probably charge you an arm and a leg a minute so you might want to use a prepaid intl calling card from your cellphone or landline.
posted by birdherder at 9:17 PM on February 19, 2006

i second the callign card option. i make far too many international calls to friends and associates abroad, and figured out that paying $1-3 a minute through t-mobile was absured.

i looked for calling cards and found mobile caller to be awesome. they're cheap, let you choose from 4 different plans (changable whenever you want for no charge), and above all are very convenient. they even have toll-free numbers for other countries. i pretty much swear by them.

good luck!
posted by quadrinary at 11:18 PM on February 19, 2006

Keep in mind that the most expensive way to make an international phone call is through your cell phone plan. You can save a lot of money by using a calling card.
posted by b1tr0t at 11:19 PM on February 19, 2006

By a strange coincidence, I just got off of my cell phone, having called a French cell customer by dialing: 011-336-xx-xx-xx-xx

Also, b1tr0t is correct. If you don't pay for an international calling plan, it'll be expensive (~0.40/minute, I think).
posted by I Love Tacos at 11:55 PM on February 19, 2006

With every cell-phone I've ever used (largely GSM, so not directly applicable to Verizon), I've had luck adding a '+' before the country code (props to birdherder). If you have a world phone (or transfer your phone book to a foreign phone), the '+' is used by the cell phone switching equipment automagically in place of the host country's international dialing code.

The added bonus of using the '+' when you write down a number is that you are then using the international standard for phone numbers and that the number can be unambiguously translated by someone in a different country. (Yes, this costs money. If you don't have access to a telecom library, I found a decent summary of e.123.)
posted by Mr Stickfigure at 8:22 AM on February 20, 2006

6 seems to be the code for mobiles, regardless of locality. 011-33-6-# did it. Thanks.
posted by devilsbrigade at 2:11 PM on February 20, 2006