Before you start

Passport, for a prepaid SIM
A French RIB, for most contract tariffs
An unlocked or eSIM-capable handset
A French address, for fibre installation

Step-by-step

1
Buy a prepaid SIM on your passport the day you arrive
Available in phone shops and in tabacs. Identity verification is required but a passport satisfies it. A French number in your first hours unlocks bank verification codes and appointment systems that will otherwise block you.
In personWho: YouDay 1
2
Move to a sans engagement contract once you have a RIB
French no-commitment tariffs are month-to-month and remarkably cheap for large data allowances. There is little reason to take a long commitment unless a subsidised handset genuinely justifies it, and it usually does not.
OnlineWho: You
3
Leave FR-Alert enabled
France broadcasts emergency messages to every handset attached to the cells in an affected area, with no app to install. In the Var the alerts that matter are wildfire, violent Mediterranean storms and evacuation instructions. Turning off unfamiliar alert categories while setting up a new phone disables the fastest channel designed to reach you.
OnlineWho: YouWeek 1
4
Order fibre as soon as you have an address
Coverage across the métropole is widely available and prices are low. Installation usually takes one to three weeks and may require a technician visit and access to the building's riser.
OnlineWho: You
5
Ask about the building's fibre at the viewing
The dense old town between the Cours Lafayette and the port is largely older stock with narrow risers and copropriétés that must agree to installations. Operator coverage checkers work at street level, so the street can be served while a specific flat is not. If you work from home, make it a viewing question.
OnlineWho: You
6
Do not treat a mobile as your safety margin on the water
Coverage is fine across the built-up bay and unreliable further out, around the islands and in the lee of the headlands. If you sail, dive or paddle, VHF channel 16 and 196 from a mobile are the maritime rescue channels, and a phone in a dry bag is a supplement to them rather than a substitute.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Passport, for prepaid registration
French RIB, for a contract
Justificatif de domicile, for fibre installation

Things most newcomers don’t know

In a wildfire département the phone alert is the system, and people switch it off by accident.

FR-Alert pushes warnings to every handset attached to the cells in a defined area — no app, no subscription — and in the Var the message you are most likely to receive concerns a fire and where not to go. It arrives as a loud unfamiliar notification, which is exactly the kind of thing people disable while setting up a new phone in a new country. Leave it on, and read the day's massif access map in summer rather than assuming a trail is open.

Source: ministère de l'Intérieur — FR-Alert

French mobile is cheap in a way that surprises almost every arrival.

The entry of a disruptive fourth operator in 2012 triggered a price war whose effects never reversed, and France now has some of the lowest mobile tariffs in western Europe. Large-data plans with no commitment cost a fraction of the UK, Irish or German equivalent. Anyone paying a high monthly mobile bill in France has simply not looked at what is available.

Source: Arcep

The RIO code is how you keep your number, and you request it from the line itself.

Call 3179 free of charge from the phone you want to port and a voice server reads you a RIO code and sends it by SMS. Give that to the new operator; they execute the switch and close the old contract automatically. Cancelling the old service first loses the number for good, and very few newcomers know the number exists — it is the most common self-inflicted telecom mistake in France.

Source: Arcep

Sans engagement is the default worth choosing, precisely because the market keeps moving.

France's no-commitment tariffs are month-to-month, cheap and switchable, and they exist because of how competitive the market is. A subsidised handset inside a two-year contract almost always costs more in total than buying the phone outright, and it removes your ability to move when a better offer appears — which here happens several times a year.

Source: community-reported

Common mistakes to avoid

Disabling government emergency alerts while setting up a new handset in a wildfire département.
Relying on a mobile signal offshore instead of VHF or 196.
Signing a two-year commitment when no-commitment tariffs are cheap and switchable.
Cancelling your old service before requesting the RIO code and losing the number.
Assuming fibre is available in the old town because the street is covered.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.