I’ve just ordered a VOIP service that gives me unlimited calls to UK landline and mobiles and a proper London number. I’ll let you know how I get on. I previously had this package with Orange but it was costing me 130 euros a month. This is 21 quid.
I can honestly say that I have never had problems with the quality of VOIP calls.
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I am with sosh pay 46.00€ per month which includes mobil internet and free phone calls to europe
We decided on OVH Telecom 30€/month because it’s a stable and neutral connection with no hidden stuff.
It comes with 2 voip numbers and virtual fax number (goes to your email).
The usual unlimited calls to landlines and french mobiles.
We are not in “dégroupé” so there weren’t many options and I certainly didn’t want orange.
You can call tech support and have aproper conversation. I rang them about my parents place as went with ovh there and they emailed me links to technical guides to check the wiring etc, allowing my dad to fix wiring coming into house.
You get a decent modem provided, similar one we had in UK with Andrews&Arnold in fact. It has 2 telephone points.
We have a VoIP box so get calls to our old uk home number and business number through, any problem with sound is usually the weather and fact we only had 2Mb. A bit better now we are at 4mb, but a change from our previous 80mb!
If you really need it OVH offer OverTheBox, this allows you to combine multiple s/adsl lines to increase speed and resilience.
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I’ve just changed the Box for a more powerful one with SFR. I pay 63 euros/month and I have unlimited telephone in France (with mobiles) 200 other countries (all with mobiles)…unlimited - Well over 240 TV Channels, Recording programmes possible,
It is a little expensive I think, but Orange is just ridiculous for price.
Of all the French operators I would single out SFR, Free as being good if a little pricey. Watch out for the special offers - they are normally only for 12 months then up to normal price.
Neither Free nor SFR have a special service in English.
I don’t get your logic, I get much better value for money from Orange than you’re getting through your deal. Horses for courses.
We’re with Sosh since January this year; 29,99 €/month for adsl and landline, no separate box rental. Mobile phones with Free, 2 €/month.
Numéricable : very fast Internet link
free calls to over 100 countries (landline)
20.90€ per month instead of 30.90€
It should be more, but once my 48 months had expired I
phoned them to stop my subscription.
They immediately offered to take 10€ of per month as long as
I stay on another 12 months.
Don’t ask, don’t get
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We pay 41.99 for livebox, internet, landline which includes free calls to uk landlines, and tv. The package also comes with mobile sim card with small amount of free monthly data which i find is enough for checking emails. For friends and family mobiles I use rebtel which allows me to make the mobike calls free, a fiver a month but well worth it
Sadly, we have Satellite Internet! It’s through Nordne at €34.90 a month for limited download but free calls to landlines in Metropolitan France.
Satellite because we’re so far from the exchange - one of the drawbacks of rural life!
If anyone knows of a cheaper satellite provider or one with unlimited download, please let me know.
Okay I think I follow the idea of using VOIP/ISDN through a cheaper ISP provider, so I don’t need calls.
But what I don’t follow is that the ISDN line to the house (in my case from Orange) which runs down the lane on a number of their Posts to get to me (as the last in the line) will still be enabled/maintained if I go elsewhere. That is unless part of the package from the new supplier includes all the infrastructure and maintenance for the supply, presumably by either subcontracting Orange, or providing it themselves on Orange hardware, which if that’s the case, all seems to be at a cheap price beyond belief ?
So if I ditch Orange, and then say one of the Posts or part of the Line was to fail (say through a Storm, a not unknown event), then I simply sign up to Orange for a month, during which time they come out and make everything good, all in order for me to then cancel with them, and go back to the other provider. Unfortunately that sounds too good to be true, as I seem to remember the shortest contract Orange would offer me was 12 months, and that they have refused to provided any new Lines in our Village, so I’m pretty sure they would reallocate my line to another house. All assuming that they (Orange) were happily letting another ISP use their resources free of charge up until it went wrong.
Or am I miss-cuing ?
Hi James We have orange second home contract which we are changing as we are coming back to France to live again. (
) Is the contract you have just taken out giving a good service and who is it with please? I asked the orange helpline once whether we had to have the landline and pay for it as we only ever used the internet service they said we did.Reading this thread think I was misinformed.
Thanks Briony
I’m not sure that you were misinformed, second home contracts are different.
I no longer pay line rental on a second home orange contract for phone/Internet. We now only have Internet. I now no longer suspend the service when we are away as it is half the price it doesn’t seem worth it.
No, absolutely not! Changing providers can be a very faffy business, you certainly wouldn’t chop and change like that. You simply contact your provider and report the fault. Your provider has a business arrangement with Orange whereby Orange continues to maintain all the lines, regardless of provider.
Some people assert that you get quicker solutions if you’re an Orange customer than if you go through a third party but in 10 years I haven’t had a line problem (touch wood!) so I have no personal experience. I did have a problem with my box and my provider was able to run all the tests, ascertain that it was the alicebox not the line that was at fault, they sent me a new box and everything worked again.
Other ISPs don’t use Orange’s resources free of charge, they have business arrangement with Orange. If you want to see what other providers are available at your address there are sites online where you can check - not every provider has an arrangement for every postcode.
I think you’re overthinking this. Probably more than 50% of people in France use providers other than Orange. The system works.
My experience with Orange is that they will tell you whatever you want to hear to upgrade/keep you as a customer. Their after sales service is appalling IMO!
I went in to one of the shops once, that’s not much better either.
The VOIP service I have is great, they are sending me a domestic system to try, if it’s as good, I’ll let you have the details, should have it soon.
http://www.survivefrance.com/t/orange-you-have-got-to-be-joking/3749
They have been absolutely brilliant in my experience. That’s the problem, a few customers have issues and a whole brand is slated. I chose Orange because it was the obvious choice and nothing that any of the other providers have offered have made me consider changing to them. Just because there is a choice you don’t have to opt for another provider.
I have a 2nd home in Vienne, I pay 31.50/month, no landline rental for unlimited internet and free VOIP calls to UK landlines only, it’s with PhonExpat. They have English speaking staff and good technical support. Even so I’ll be very interested in Jame’s experience. Most of our family in UK prefer mobile and rarely answer landline phone which means having to send a text & SHOUT pick up!
30 euros/month for internet, landline and one basic mobile phone subscription. This is with Sosh (lowcost brand of Orange), so excellent service quality of Orange but with bargain prices.
French TV we watch with Fransat via satellite, only an initial investment of 130 euros in box+card, no subscription fees.
We’re stuck with Orange for the line itself as we are not in an unbundled area, went with them for Internet as well as it turned out there isn’t much cash to be saved (or any) if you have to pay Orange for the line and another ISP for internet. It’s just over 50€ per month - the equivalent package on BT (phone+net+TV) is more, so I suppose it is not too unreasonable. At least the village has VDSL so we get a pretty decent line speed, generally 80Mbps down but Orange itself can be a bottleneck and it has slowed down to not much more than 10-15Mbps at peak times.
At the moment 600€ per year for the 6 weeks of the year that we are there seems a lot. If we ever get the place rented it won’t seem as painful. I haven’t even set up the TV box as I only took the TV because that was the only way to get VDSL and we have the UK catch-up apps on the telly, Freesat and terrestrial French TV. We don’t generally bother with the latter and as far as the Orange TV offering goes, I need 130 channels (or whatever it is) of French TV like I need a third armpit!