I want to cancel a freebox contract (12 years service) I want to know what will happen to the land line associated with the contract. We would like to continue with the France Telephone service.
We also have a Freebox.
I do not think Free offers the option to rent a landline only.
Perhaps you could switch to Orange.
You’ll have to Google the details - but you simply need a code that “allows” the number to be transferred to another company. All the sites tell you how - you simply call a number and it tells you the code - fill the paperwork in give the new Telco the code and it all gets swapped. Damn site quicker than faffing with free customer service
Thanks for quick reply. 
I am going to use 4g box for internet and cancel and ditch the freebox,after years of poor adsl service. My wife would like to reain the land line service incase the 4g fails. therefore the inquiry regarding keeping the fixed line/tel number. regards
won’t the line already be “owned” by Orange in any event and just rented by them to Free? Mostly, Orange now use the line for VOIP rather than traditional telephone line, so you may struggle a bit without having an Orange LiveBox but talk to Orange English speaking helpline to discuss further.
If you are going the 4G box route, which supplier are you considering?
Sorry I am not going to Orange Imgoing onto 4g as the service is fantastic 15GB down load with my Free service was 900KB
@Chalky then you will almost certainly lose the line.
We moved from Orange LiveBox to Bouygues 4G (perfectly happy with the result) but we did lose the Orange line.
No worries for us… we just use our Bouygues SIM telephones for telephone communications and WhatsApp for telephone comms with UK to avoid charges for contacting family and friends there.
Thanks for you comments I am going to 4g RED 10euro/month for 100 GB plus (which is associated with FSR) using a Huawei Router so a lot cheaper than FREE. I must have paid them 15years of poor service ( average 33 euros a month) REGARDS
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If you want a landline you will have to rent it from one provider or another. I suspect that Orange may be the only provider who offers landline only rental.
Free has always worked pretty well for us, we pay 29€ a month, I have been thinking for a while of looking at other options, in fact we do also have a mobile internet gizmo for when we go away, but somehow I am reluctant to bin the landline. I cannot even explain why since we rarely use it, and the 4G set up is not unlimited whereas the freebox is. Decisions decisions.
You would be better off porting than cancelling.
A few reasons:
The general reason applying to all telecoms:
Porting eliminates the need for a notice period. You give your new operator your RIO, they do everything, it’s very very quick. IME about a week.
Dial 3179 or ask your operator for a RIO. Be careful Free may refuse to give it over the phone for a phone line, as they did me, but presumably for a data line they have to give it.
The specific reasons to Free:
I have had very very bad experiences with Free. The internet is full of them. In particular:
Everything you send to them, whether it’s notice of termination or returning a box to them, you must make it signed-for. So avis de réception etc. This is totally essential as Free will routinely fail to process and deny they received the item, particularly the box. As soon as you see the avis de reception, give it 3 working days and call them and chase them to action it. You may need to keep doing this.
Amongst my bad experiences with Free I sent the resiliation by post signed-for avis de reception. They then continued to take money from my bank account for 3 months. (UK networks do this too, but their admin catches up and repays automatically after a month or two, if this happens).
I called Free. They admitted they could see they received the resiliation 3 months previous. But the agent said it had not been acted on and he could only terminate today, not from the 3-months-ago correctly notified, signed-for resiliation date. This seemed a conversation quite habitual for him.
He said I would have to raise a complaint to receive back the extra 3 months subscription, which he admitted Free should not have taken. Uh-oh no we can’t accept a complaint on the telephone. You have to send a letter to the Free address by post, in Paris. Knowing Free ignored even the signed-for resiliation and is well known (internet) to deny receiving anything that is not sent to them signed-for, this means another 10-12 euros cost for a further letter which they will ignore even signed-for.
I am waiting till I can afford a Que Choisir subscription as they give free legal advice 4 times per year. I will ask them how to format the letter I will send them demanding my stolen 3 months extra subscription payments incorrectly taken after correct resiliation, back plus around 22 euros for the cost of the 2 avis de reception letters my resiliation will have taken by then (as they ignored the first one and the second one should not have been required)
So with Free, protect yourself by making everything signed-for especially the return of the box, as they are systematic liars and thieves. I am aware of libel laws calling them that, but my evidence and the other evidence easily viewable across the internet makes me feel there is no risk in calling Free what they are.
our abonnement with Bouygues is unlimited and sans engagement…
The problem with limited is that, once you either near your limit or reach it, the service is throttled.
This is how you take your number with you
You can still port the “landline” number (well assuming you’re suscribing to a 4G “box” not just a 4G SIM card you stick in a dongle) - Karen’s post is the way to port a “number” - with the right terms and numbers. You’ll probably find 4G is as robust as what passes for a landline today
As I understand it no one provides traditional landlines anymore - or at least there’s no new landlines its all “internet” calling in reality for new numbers - so part of what you want I don’t think exists now (as per Graham really).
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Do you mean the speed was 900 Kb per second ?. That is very poor. Is this because you live in a very rural location with a long copper cable to the local exchange?
I live in a very small village, but we do have an exchange box in the village. When we moved in here, the previous owners only got around 2Mbps, which is also very poor. I looked up on the ariase website what equipment was in the exchange, and discovered the exchange equipment had been upgraded the year before. I asked the engineer who came to reactivate the line to switch it to the newer equipment (VDSL2) and we now get 75 Mbps. A huge difference.
So, the moral of this is check what you can get on the ariase website as it may be possible to get a much faster connection. You may have to switch providers to do this, but it seems you are unhappy with your current provider anyway.
I would like to thank every one who has replyed to me Reference Dumping Free but I am sure there are some people who have had good service with Free. I am now with REDbySFR, 4G using a Huawei B535-333 Router so will get back and report as soon as I given it fair trial.
But I would to hear from anyone who has made the choice.
Thanks again
Free seem to have a very bad reputation in being difficult to cancel - if there service is OK is there any need to cancel?
I am interested to switch to Free as they have a very good mobile package offering calls to overseas mobile numbers - which is 10€ cheaper if you have internet supplied by them.
Would I regret switching to Free?
We had Free in Paris, first ADSL then fiber. We canceled last year as no longer needed the flat.
The only problem we had was we didn’t send the old ADSL boxes back with the fiber boxes, after an exchange of emails we realized our mistake, sent them. The account was closed soon after.
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