Having been with Orange for our Broadband with Voip for almost a year now i am turning my attention to switching to another provider - hope to save some money in the process , but in addition its a principle thing due to the poor customer care received when originally setting it up in 2012 (which is another story and if i go into it will ruin my Sunday)
typical bill is around 37 - 44 euros
So would like to hear who you would reccommend for this type of set up.
One thing i must add to the configuration is a wifi repeater or similair device to enable wifi in our gite which currently doesnt have it due to distance / stone walls etc.
I was wondering if you have any advice about internet providers. We have a holiday home in Lassay les Chateaux and want to spend a lot more time there in the near future. We have tried to get info but my french isn't great. I noticed you are in Mayenne so wondered if you had any ideas . There is a phone line in the house but not connected at the moment . Cheers Jan Robinson
Despite living in a tiny village in the Aude, we have an electrical retailer that is an Orange agent. He did the ordering and then bush bash bosh, job done.
Tony, why an engineer? We ordered said box, collected it from an agreed delivery point 5 days later, followed the instructions and were on line within an hour
Thanks Sheila. I think it boils down to the fact that I don't need the phone line and yes, I know they won't allow the broadband to turned off for some months!
Hi all. Just jumping in here in a hurry - have to go out in a few, so haven't read back over the last couple of pages and apologies if I repeat anything that's already been said. You can get a phone line from FT/Orange for a "maison secondaire". You give them a few weeks notice before arriving and they will have the phone turned on, and same applies in reverse when you are leaving. If you also require broadband, my understanding is that you cannot turn this one and off but have to pay for each month. I found this when we first arrived, and you can set it up via the English speaking helpline. Hope this helps.
Hi Debra. I have to admit I chickened out at the time but I really need to do something about it and reading these post s again I have stored the English number in my phone to sort it when we arrive for the summer. We spend 14 weeks a year at our French house but pay 36 euros a month every month regardless of whether we are there or not between FT and Orange and we must be able to do better than that! have decided I want to stay with Orange but don't need the landline as we have a good deal on our UK mobiles when we are away. Used to have the phone through the internet but found it kept cutting off if both laptops were in use at the same time. Maybe I need to investigate that again. Anyway, good to know that I can try and communicate that in English!
It doesn't bother me - I've been called much worse with a surname like mine :) - more importantly - did you get sorted? I had to phone the UK helpline the other day, and they were brilliant - I needed to re-set my live box settings when we had a storm - only took 5-10 minutes on the phone and we were back working again. Very impressed with their customer service. I know friends who use the french helpline who don't appear to be as happy.....
Thinking of changeling my line rental and Internet privateer from France telecom and orange to a cheaper and hopefully better provider,knowing how much of a pain many things are to change in France any help and advice much appreciated please,like how much notice must I give etc
Hi Debra, have got used to the name thing - my middle name is Jayne, so I have double trouble! We have excellent broadband, so dont need a satellite, but speak to a uk company called Avonline regarding satellite, if thats what you need.
doesn't it annoy you when people call you Deborah (perhaps that's just me!!)
Regards your experience with OT - are you getting this through a land line, or through satellite? Because our house is going to be very remote - perhaps at the end of an old Ft line, and we will not get efficient internet through this mode.
Hi Deborah. Could I ask, have you used this number to discuss your contract? I too am paying both FT and Orange and would like to see if I can reduce my costs by dumping the FT phone line and just use the livebox for internet and calls. But I don’t trust my French to get it right!
Debra been here two years now but when we arrived took our S1 down to CPAM this was afterthe uk had got me married off to the right wife they had me paired up with a woman in Bristol CPAM were more than helpful sorted it out and cards arrived within two weeks again when i turned 65 as my wife is much younger than i, uk sent another form for her to be my dependant another card for her no problems for her we have now been invited to go for a full medical inspection which we have been warned takes a full 2 hours and free of charge, sorry guys for going off topic
Oh no! What did the CPAM malarkey involve, as both hubby and I have got our S1 docs from the DWP, and have to do the CPAM shuffle as soon as we can summon up the energy - would love to hear how your experience was
Hi there. We moved to France just last week, and my OH is now doing all this research too. We have a friend in Deux-Sevres who is also happy with the SFR 37 euro package. We agree with the comments about Orange - we used to have a landline at our first French holiday home some while ago, and their customer service was phenomenally 'disinterested'. However, hubby is saying have a look at www.uktelecom.net as they have a pdf guide on there - "The English Speakers' Ultimate Guide to the french telecom market"by Bob Elliott - latest edition is Winter 2012. He says it is pretty informative - he is half way through. We going to have to look at a satellite package when we get to our final home, as it is pretty remote and although has an ancient de-activated FT line, will not support Broadband - so any advice on satellite packages will be gratefully received. Also, does anyone know a good French Sim card supplier/deal, for a sim free mobile? Many thanks
looks like you're scuppered until your mayor polls for a repeater.. 8k is about the limit for adsl?.. a friend was in a similar situation with only dial up.. a repeater was installed in the next village as part of the ZO campaign, and he now has 3meg. if theres no chance of full adsl, SFN have been promoting adsl via sat.. some of the deals look attractive.. worth a look?
I think we're trapped Bob. We're not unbundled and +/- 8K from the exchange so we end up paying for a SFR land line plus Orange broadband and the best we get is 512K. I'm used to 20MB plus so it's a bit frustrating.