(Apologies for the spam-magnet)

We're off to France in a couple of weeks, and I'm looking for a French data SIM that'll fit in my existing Huawei E353 dongle. I've got an existing PAYG data SIM from Three, but I don't really want to pay roaming charges for data-only.

So far I've found £50 for 2GB, which seems pricey. Is this standard? Or do you guys know where I can get something cheaper?

One condition is that I need to buy this in the UK, and have the option of topping it up with a UK credit card, because -- once we're in France -- the wife isn't going to let me go shopping in whatever the French equivalent of Carphone Warehouse is, even assuming that there's one near where we're staying.

I'd say look at Abroadband. But 2GB for £50 seems a pretty good deal.

Really? The French pay 2.5x as much for mobile broadband as we do? This based on the fact that a 1GB top-up on Three costs £10.

If that's the case, then fair enough, but I was hoping not to be penalised for being abroad, given that French Internet is pretty much equivalent to English Internet.

Abroadband are €0,59/MB. So 2GB by my reckoning is going to be ~£1k. Which, while positively extortionate, was still cheaper than EE for roaming.

Yeah, but in my scenario, I'm not roaming -- I'm French, using a French SIM, using French Internet.

P.S. I'm not actually French.

They high cost is for the fees for encapsulating English TCP packets within French TCP packets so that they can traverse the French Internet. You can save a fortune if you use the French Internet...

I got a PAYG Vodaphone SIM when I was in Oz a couple of years ago. It was a great deal, loads of data and minutes for about $50. It even enabled tethering, at a time when Orange charged extra for it back home.

I turned up at a local Vodafone shop in Melbourne, flashed my passport, gave my hotel as my home address and handed over 50 in cash. Hopefully the French are as easy going as the Aussies.