Simon- everyone here says that is the reason...The obvious thing to do would be to change to Orange but everyone here says they're no better.
Things having been getting worse recently and I guess that we are reaching the point where we will have to change but changing contracts in France has to be timed correctly and our experience with banks and insurance is that you can change as much as you like but things don't necessarily get any better.
We used to use Orange and then I signed up with Sosh with is a cheaper version owned and run by Orange. I agree that the Orange service is generally poor in their shops, but we've stayed with them as if there is a fault with the line they will at least fix it, usually within a few days. Sosh charge a basic €35 which includes mobile phone (unlimited calls to french mobile, sms), + landline (unlimited landline calls to Europe USA etc) + unlimited internet connection. And it's a non -fixed contract so easy to change if we wish.
The internet connection here was often breaking down, therefore no internet or telephone either. Finally we got an intelligent technician who replaced the cable (which was falling to bits after at least 30 years in all weather conditions) from the telephone pole to the house and bingo internet much improved! They charged me €69 for the callout which I disputed and I got a refund. Basically you dont pay if the fault is outside the house. They also gave us €25 extra reduction on the next bill without asking, because we had so many problems over the last few months!
I suppose service and internet connection depends on where you live and on local demand. everyone in our hamlet has internet but we are the only ones who use it most of the day.
Funnily enough anytime I've phoned Sosh helpline, I found that the guys who answered were more helpful and polite than the females.
Hi, my Husband installs broadband, if you would like to recive some info. please telephone us the evening around
7'o clock, he Might be able to help you???
I endorse all the negative comments about Orange. We transferred from SFR because the latter provided lousy speed in our area. Orange speed is better but the service is appalling and the staff are rude. Worst of all, they are incredibly expensive. Our monthly bill for landline, internet & 2 mobiles averages €90 (€70 of that is in fixed costs). We have unfortunately signed a contract which will incur an exit penalty of €400 if we wish to get out of it within a year. Take a look at SOSH. Ironically, they are owned by Orange but they are miles cheaper.
Don't forget there is Sosh - the cheaper version of Orange.
I have been meaning to move to them, especially as we have never installed the TV box, despite living here for five years!
Oh and 'sans engagement'.
For work we've dropped SFR business and got Simms.
If your mobile coverage is bad, you can get a femtocell for a 20 euro fee.
That’s excellent service Haydn and I have to say my gripe was with the Orange sales staff, I never encountered their engineers who, being engineers, are undoubtedly much nicer people 
The wifi range is dependent on your wall and floor thickness. My house is smaller that yours but needs two wifi hubs for full coverage, even when I had a livebox.
Certainly service comments seem to vary.
I have Orange (Livebox) and found their service brilliant.
Initially we had constant dropping of the broadband connection, they sent an engineer who found the wires in our house had oxidised. As the phone wires run through the walls & under the floor it would have been an expensive job to sort out.
Orange arranged (free of charge) to run another line from a nearby telephone pole to another part of the house (central position) and put a new connection box in. With Live box I now have WiFi to 90% of the property (266sqm)
I think one has to be careful Mike. Whether you need a fixed line subscription or not depends on whether your line is “unbundled”, that is “degrouped”. If you are degrouped any service provider can use your line to provide the service, they pay the carrier for that privilege, not you. Orange had me over a barrel because I wasn’t unbundled so I had to rent the line (from them!) even though the internet service I bought from them didn’t, theoretically, need line rental. That’s what Degrouptest started up for, letting people know when they were unbundled from the local loop and what offers they were now eligble for. Now as most are unbundled it is more a cost comparison site. The big deal for me is that it seems that even though I’m not unbundled SFR are somehow covering the line rental that Orange stiffed me for I hope you’re unbundled then you have full choice and transparent pricing.
Useful degrouped map… http://www.free.fr/adsl/pages/accueil/carte-de-degroupage.html
I have used UK Telecom for 5+ years and would not switch unless something really spectacular arrived (unlikely where I live). They have provided me good service and sort issues fast. I currently get about 7dl 1ul which doesn't sound a lot but for 3 years it was 1.5dl and .37ul. I pay £25 to £30 per month, Internet and phone.
Re Orange. Most of my friends on orange have nothing but bad to say about them.
Geoff - for info all the telecom's / ISP's use the legacy Orange/France Telecom physical lines and infrastructure within France. Pretty much like BT in the UK although I believe that's changing. So - that is NOT the reason you get cut off due to busy lines.
What I don't understand though is why you've stuck with SFR when it's been getting worse and worse - maybe they are the only supplier available at your address?
Hi Paul
Thanks for the link, I see the basic package (Express) is 29.99 TTC, is there line rental on top of this or by taking these style services is this avoided, UK as you know we have to add the line rental unless specifically and clearly included.
From the Orange web site I used the right click on the mouse and then the translate tab to obtain below from Orange, it would appear they clearly state no fixed line subscription. They currently have 5 euro off per month if transfering, min 12 month contract. The previous residents did though have to pay to leave Orange and I wonder if this is a common practice to deter folk from changing every 12 months all be it painful.
Does one still use a standard telephone ?
Hi Mike,
I can report that our broadband, which is provided by our owner, is SFR ADSL. It includes the telephone and television plus an SMS service and I assume that it was chosen for its low price. Our experience is that the access service is quite good but the ISP is very variable, and I often experience very poor performance, even when the ADSL part appears to be ok. This is quite an old service, and we don't know what it costs, but it is pretty ordinary when compared to the services we get back in Australia.
Alan
We've used SFR right from the start. We originally had a package that included TV, Phone and Internet. The TV part never worked and we cancelled the contract.
The Internet/Phone service is getting worse and worse. This is, apparently, because SFR operate through Orange and when the lines get busy we get cut off. In the summer and at other holiday times our internet and phone are down for about 3/4 hours a day. SFR don't care as long as they get their money on time and everyone else we've spoken to seem to think it's quite normal.
Plus the quality and condition of the line which engineers made very clear to us.
Been using Freebox for a while now in 2 properties, pretty happy with it. At about €30 month, it includes unlimited internet, French TV, limited free landline calls to uk (& elsewhere) and the Freebox wifi player included is a nice bit of kit - blue ray player included, hard drive and I stream filmontv through it for free UK TV and more. (It also has a games console type controller which is still in the box) The French TV bit is a bit uneccessary for me as I get digital through the antenna but you can subscribe to U.K. TV & more at a. Extra cost (€1.99 month?) I did find that on occasion the live streaming TV became unreliable at peak times so unsubscribed to that and use filmonTV or freesat dish and box for uk TV
We use OVH Telecom. No TV or any frills, but over twice the speed compared with the previous suppliers, Club Internet (remember them?) and Alice /Free. The download speed obviously depends on line length and whether your local exchange is equipped for ADSL2+.
Hi Mike. I switched to Orange Zen about twelve months ago. I now have French tv, broadband, fixed phone line and mobile all on the same contract. It's easy, well priced and so far great service from Orange. I can only speak as I find...
As I said on the other thread that touches on the same, we have a complaint running directly up to the CEO of Orange, we had our house connection changed only days ago, the men doing the job told us the line is knackered if I can put it that way. We are in the sticks, low priority so we are part of kicking up a fuss but it seems to be gaining us little ground. Three months free of charges, big deal. In some countries the offer they are making that says X would mean they are in breech of contract and could be done for it, especially if a large scale complaint by hundreds or thousands of people was mustered together. Here it doesn't work that way, so we'll keep plugging away and Stéphane Richard, CEO Orange will not be rid of us too easily.
That’s dreadful. My 1.2 shows most non HD stuuf acceptably. There must be contention on your line as well. Is it worth having another go at the service provider?
Even with our recent 'improvement' we rarely get as much as 2 mbps, 1.8 is about it. Watching a 4 minute Youtube video can take over 6 minutes at times it stops so often.