Orange Holiday SIM - Spitz AX3000 5G Router - France

[Barney]

Just thought I would share my learnings from buying an Orange Holiday SIM with 50Gb Data (upped to 100Gb with their current offer).
I have a Spitz AX3000 5G router and was planning to use the SIM in it for a few weeks travelling in France.
I plugged in the SIM straight off the ferry and for 24hrs everything worked superbly - superb speed - see pic.
I powered down the router overnight and the next day it refused to connect.
9 days of pointless back and forth emails to Orange later they finally admit that the "SIM cannot be used in a router"
>> "At Orange, we have SIM cards for routers but this one that are in your possession does not work in these devices."
Their website is obviously pretty deceiving then.. https://travel.orange.com/en/buy-a-sim/offers/europe/orhldeur50gb

This SIM includes :

• 50GB in Europe in 5G/LTE
• 120 minutes of calls from Europe to worldwide
• Unlimited calls and texts in Europe
• 1000 SMS from Europe to worldwide
• Data tethering allowed and no usage limitation (videos, apps…)
• Gigas and minutes valid 28 days from the activation of the tariff
• Usable on any device (phones, tablets, hotspots…)
• Top up compatible and available with this card

#7 - Usable on any device (phones, tablets, hotspots…)
Should read "EXCEPT ROUTERS" ..

Anyway Plan B was to leave the SIM in an old iPhone tethered into the USB sharing the Phone Hotspot.
This works but this doesn't get the same antenna power/speed of connection.

Just sharing in case anyone else has learned the same, managed to get Orange to unblock it or found alternative solutions.
Cheers
Barney
2019 T6 California Ocean

 

[WelshGas]

I use a 3 data only sim in my MiFi. Works all.over Europe, no problems.
The combined data , text and call version sim is flaky.

 

[Wannabecamperman]

I use a 3 data only sim in my MiFi. Works all.over Europe, no problems.
The combined data , text and call version sim is flaky.

Having had similar issues with 'all-in calls, text, etc sims', for my dual band 4G / 5G Three router, I purchased an amazon prepaid data only 5g Three sim with unlimited data in UK (fair usage monthly cap of 600GB) and take this in the van.

We turn it off nightly but it always boots up fine every morning. 5G coverage is always north of 300MB, with 4G usually still better speed than the 30MB you get on standard fibre.

We are now exploring the options for Europe, so I'm pleased to hear there is a Europe-wide Three data only sim also.

Can I ask what the price and usage limits are please @WelshGas ? Thanks in advance.

 

[WelshGas]

Having had similar issues with 'all-in calls, text, etc sims', for my dual band 4G / 5G Three router, I purchased an amazon prepaid data only 5g Three sim with unlimited data in UK (fair usage monthly cap of 600GB) and take this in the van.

We turn it off nightly but it always boots up fine every morning. 5G coverage is always north of 300MB, with 4G usually still better speed than the 30MB you get on standard fibre.

We are now exploring the options for Europe, so I'm pleased to hear there is a Europe-wide Three data only sim also.

Can I ask what the price and usage limits are please @WelshGas ? Thanks in advance.

I buy the prepaid 24gb 3 data sims on Amazon. Valid for upto 24 months from first use. You can top them up. Used in Europe, Scandinavia, Germany, France Italy Austria and Switzerland primarily, also in Australia and USA. Never breached any usage limits but used mainly for Internet, email and WhatsApp messaging and calls via WhatsApp. Used less than 20gb on my 3 week trip to Norway. Phone and iPad connected. Films etc pre downloaded prior to travelling. Don't stream music or use for navigation.

 

[Bradely]

Just thought I would share my learnings from buying an Orange Holiday SIM with 50Gb Data (upped to 100Gb with their current offer).
I have a Spitz AX3000 5G router and was planning to use the SIM in it for a few weeks travelling in France.
I plugged in the SIM straight off the ferry and for 24hrs everything worked superbly - superb speed - see pic.
I powered down the router overnight and the next day it refused to connect.
9 days of pointless back and forth emails to Orange later they finally admit that the "SIM cannot be used in a router"
>> "At Orange, we have SIM cards for routers but this one that are in your possession does not work in these devices."
Their website is obviously pretty deceiving then.. https://travel.orange.com/en/buy-a-sim/offers/europe/orhldeur50gb

This SIM includes :

• 50GB in Europe in 5G/LTE
• 120 minutes of calls from Europe to worldwide
• Unlimited calls and texts in Europe
• 1000 SMS from Europe to worldwide
• Data tethering allowed and no usage limitation (videos, apps…)
• Gigas and minutes valid 28 days from the activation of the tariff
• Usable on any device (phones, tablets, hotspots…)
• Top up compatible and available with this card

#7 - Usable on any device (phones, tablets, hotspots…)
Should read "EXCEPT ROUTERS" ..

Anyway Plan B was to leave the SIM in an old iPhone tethered into the USB sharing the Phone Hotspot.
This works but this doesn't get the same antenna power/speed of connection.

Just sharing in case anyone else has learned the same, managed to get Orange to unblock it or found alternative solutions.
Cheers
Barney
2019 T6 California Ocean

View attachment 126909

Never breached any usage limits but used mainly for Internet, email and WhatsApp messaging and calls via WhatsApp.

 

[Betsycalifornia]

I’m using an idmobile phone sim and a lebara phone sim in my router. No issues at all. The router does behave like a phone and can receive texts. Teltonika Rutx50. Have you tried setting the sim up in a phone then switching it to the router?

 

[Wannabecamperman]

I’m using an idmobile phone sim and a lebara phone sim in my router. No issues at all. The router does behave like a phone and can receive texts. Teltonika Rutx50. Have you tried setting the sim up in a phone then switching it to the router?

This was suggested to me before I got the data-only prepaid SCANCOM sim. It's amazing value so I didn't need to go back to the texts and calls one in my case.

I wonder if @Barney has tried this with the French sim that stopped working?

 

[RoB5urf]

What's the benefit of using a router - is it just better at getting a signal than a phone? I've travelled in Europe a couple of times and never had an issue with using my phone.

 

[Betsycalifornia]

What's the benefit of using a router - is it just better at getting a signal than a phone? I've travelled in Europe a couple of times and never had an issue with using my phone.

For me, it’s so the devices I use can connect to a wireless signal without keep tethering them every time I want to use them, the better mobile connection is purely due to the external aerial, that isn’t really required for the wireless. The router has internal aerials.