A new mast has been put up near’us; about 1.8km away, and the top of the mast is visible. The mast has a ‘free’ transmitter.
I want to change my Bouygue non-contact sim (€7,99 a month for 40Gb) in my mobile router because I feel the free signal will be better (Bouygue transmitter from here = 4.3km, signal very variable).
Does anyone please have any more info? I have checked free website but can’t see what I want.
Yes. Free do a 19.99 5G deal with unlimited calls, texts and 150GB of data PM.
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As John said, YES ! All networks are currently fighting to gain new customers before Fibre becomes common, as users will then (they hope) stay with their incumbent supplier for longer. My suggestion would be to look at some comparison sites to see what deals are available. www.monpetitforfait.com is one example. I’m involved with another called www.anglofrenchtelecoms.com Once you’ve found a deal either sign up on-line or go to the network’s local phone shop, many will match the on-line price and I’ve even known a free shop to beat their on-line deal!
Free are one of a number of suppliers providing contracts sans engagement, basically a month by month deal . Just be aware, cancellation is not normally free! Most require you to send a "signed for "letter. This has a cost from La Poste of around 8€ and new contracts also have a sign-on cost of around 10€. OK, its not much but it’s a pain to go to the trouble of trying another network and just to be stung for another 18€.
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Plus if your bank is Credit Agricole they will ding your account 5 euros each time you fill out a direct debit mandat when you sign up for a new network!
I am about to sign up for a 4th network in 4 months mainly due to signal problems. Actually if you buy online, you receive protection under distance selling regulations in France as you would in England. This means you have the right to set aside the contract without penalty in the first 14-21 days.
If you buy in a shop, you don’t have distance selling protection so you could be locked in for a full year’s payments if your contract requires a 1 year minimum. If you buy online then regardless of the 1 year requirement if you take that sort of contract, you still have the right to cancel the contract regardless, in that first 2-3 week period.
Another one to look at is Prixtel - 4.99 per month - 30gB, 6.99 - 60gB.
Check if you have good SFR coverage at home first with Prixtel.
In my experience, SFR have less rural coverage in my part of 47 than Orange and Free.
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Certainly that’s our experience. In the end we went with Sosh and Orange.
I remember SFR telling me I would get good reception in my village, that from a local SFR shop. Walked around my village with my laptop got no signal at all.
Returned to the shop to following day and they wouldn’t refund so I just called the liars in front of the whole shop and left.
Best to use an app to see who has what signal in your area before committing to anything.
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I use the Opensignal app when I want to check service/coverage levels for a network other than Orange.
That’s because the operators use coverage prediction tools that haven’t been updated since Marconi was in short trousers.
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And let’s not even talk about SFR unhelpfulness in their shops.
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Prixtel does orange as well - in fact I have the orange network with Prixtel
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PS Thanks for the tip on Opensignal. Not quite accurate on Bouygues I’ve just reluctantly dumped. Bouygues customer service was the best of all the networks. Within the 2 limitations of customer service for mobile networks, that is.
In other words their job is to pacify the customer for as long as they can without actually having any ability to fix much if the company they represent is fundamentally not performing. TBH good UK and US companies seem to be much better at project managing and advocating types of customer support.
Which brings me to the 2nd limitation of customer service : this is France, so be grateful for any you get.
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This is no longer the case, it was clearly stopped between you getting your pirxtel card and me mine a month or 2 later! I had no choice, only SFR and it is not as good as it was when I had them for my work phone a couple of years ago (don’t get that!).
Apologies - I did not realise. If it’s SFR only, then Prixtel is not a good choice.
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I cannot understand nearly all of these replies. I said that I can physically see a new ‘free’ mast and wanted to have a sim-only deal with them; I have my own 4g router. I just do not know why any other suppliers were mentioned.
John Scully provided you the answer quite quickly complete with link to the specific page you need on the Free website.
You might want to be quick as there’s now a short term promotion there until 16th November, where if you only want 80 Gb rather than 150 Gb, you can get it for 10,99 euros per month which is around 4 euros less than market normal.
Knowing you’d received the answer, the rest of us just exchanged new information about mobile packages (there are quite a few old threads also and it’s a frequently recurring topic) more generally as not everyone is in the same location or only wanting a specific network.
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Thanks Karen. I thought after posting that I might get some flack, so apologies. My frustration really came from not knowing where all these other suppliers are hooked up to. I thought all masts supply either Orange, Free, Bouygues or SFP: so the other names seemed out-of-place. Is it like the elec industry, where there are now multiple suppliers, but they all ‘subcontract’ their leccy from EDF ?
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Yes, it’s exactly like having your electricity supplied by someone other than EDF. You have a contract with X, but the electricity you buy comes into your house over EDF’s infrastructure.
Orange, Bouygues, SFR and Free own and operate their own networks.
Everyone else sells “airtime” under their own brand, but uses one of the four operators networks.
An update. The nearby mast became active at the end of September. I got a ‘free’ sim (but at a cost of €10) and started the €10,99 a month deal (80Gb).
I was very very pleasantly surprised when I tested the speed. 70Mb/s was my very first check, at the end of November. Since then I have checked it many times; minimum has been 28, maximum 133Mb/s. Most tests have shown 70 to 80Mb/s.
Well chuffed! Have just kicked out Orange - that would never go fibre where I live and only cold callers phone us on the fixed line. But what a pallaver that was: I headed into Orange shop with the hired livebox. NO. Should have first telephoned the helpline and got reference numbers before heading into the shop to hand in the livebox. But it was eventually sorted out and we just wait till Jan 06, when they will adjust the account. €50 penalty for terminating the 2½ year old contract.
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