That’s about 35% more than I pay for 12 months with Orange.
What plan are you on?
I pay about €35 euros a month. I do not pay anything for a phone or phone line as VOIP calls are included.
So you are probably on Livebox Zen and are out of the 12 month discount period which means you will be paying 33.99€ (+ 3€ if you have the TV box) or on Livebox Play but still within the 1st 12 months in which case you pay 34.99€ which is going to go up to 39.99€ after 12 months.
Obviously you do pay for the copper pair to be provided within the above fees.
Yes, I considered going down the VOIP route with Orange, it is a bit cheaper as retaining your “ligne fixe” amounts to an extra 12,96€ per month.
However the original game plan was to run everything VOIP and provide a UK number for the house, as well as a French number and also allowing any renter a limited amount of phone use. All of that needs a custom SIP or IAX server and dial plan. Unfortunately that would not play so well with using the Livebox modem so keeping the phone line meant that I could use my own gear - which I did when I briefly had ADSL. Switching to VDSL stopped that at the time - I now know the configuration needed to get VDSL and the TV box working with a 3rd party modem but just haven’t had the time/energy to sort it. Too many other jobs around the place. I’m also going off my original plan for various technical and economic reasons but haven’t quite formulated a plan for how I do want to set things up.
Err, no. I am on a standard Orange contract that has remained at the same price for the last four years. I just need an Internet connection and to receive and make phone calls so VOIP is brilliant and saves a lot of money. There is certainly no need to pay for a landline and I believe that the fact that you do seems to contradict your comment about the cost. I have no idea why anyone would want a U.K. number linked to their French phone but I’m sure it’s important for some people. International calls don’t seem to be a problem for visitors, every single person who has stayed with me this year has used their own mobile to call home as they have all had international calls included in their contracts. In my opinion Orange provide a good service at a fair price. My mobile contract is with another provider but I have never been tempted by another company for my internet connection and fixed phone.
I agree with some of your comments but not everyone’s circumstances are the same - for one thing there is no mobile coverage in the house so you have to go outside where there is just about a signal - which is not so convenient. In any case post Brexit UK mobile phone companies will not be bound by the roaming rules so using one’s own phone might start to become expensive again.
I mostly agree about the UK number. It seemed like a good idea when we bought - I’m less sure now, but we’ll come back to the lack of mobile coverage. The number itself won’t cost me anything anyway as I have “spare” numbers from my UK VOIP provider that I’m not using.
Whatever tariff you are on it sounds similar to the current ones. Livebox Zen has definitely been going two years but I don’t know about four. Do you get international calls in the tariff, if so does that include to mobiles?
You are missing the point, my phone calls do not cost me a cent more than the basic tariff. My contract does not include calls to UK mobiles but that is not an issue because there are plenty of ways to speak to people on their smart phones without or, if the worst comes to the worst, the cost of an international call mobile to mobile is pretty insignificant. I could certainly do a lot of talking for the money you are paying out for your six weeks of convenience.
Neither do mine - once you have the internet part of the equation even if you retain the ligne fixe calls are free.
EDIT: Anyway we’re drifting away from the point. Orange will do you phone and ADSL internet for 33.99€ per month, that package includes international landline calls but not mobile. They have an English speaking sales and technical helpline but sales can be pretty hard to get through to. If you want VDSL and it’s available in your area you need to take the basic TV package for an extra 3€ per month (officially for renting the TV decoder).
If for some reason you want to keep a physical phone line which most people won’t care about it is an extra 12,96€ per month.
I now see what you mean about using one’s own phone; you meant visitors using their mobiles, I presumed you meant my landline. I don’t think that Brexit should make a difference to most visitor’s mobile calls, my daughter and at least one of my friends get inclusive calls and data worldwide, not just within the EU. I don’t know about the others because the topic never cropped up.
Brexit has the potential to make calls more expensive because it was EU legislation which forced the prices down, eventually making it that your calls had to cost the same wherever you roamed within the EU. Once we’re out we won’t be bound by that and it is not that long ago that using a UK mobile in France was pretty expensive.
I’m not aware of any UK domestic mobile phone tariffs which include international calls, not to say someone doesn’t offer one, of course. I think that there are some 3rd party numbers available that you can go through.
The contracts that I’m referring to have nothing to do with the EU roaming charges.
You can always change to Sosh and save money. It’s 30 euros/month.
If you use SFR - MOBILE phone calls and texts to Swiss mobiles are eyewateringly expensive. Calls to UK have thankfully reduced withe SFR in advance of the June 2017 roaming charge removal and if you have their 1€ package you can send unlimited texts for free.
All that to say that YES Brexit will have an impact on mobile phone charges to/from the UK
Hi Briony, how much do you pay for the internet with your second home contract?
Hi Paul,
we have a holiday home and at present we have a fixed line which is suspended as we are out of the country. i cancelled our last internet connection by mistake and the English speaking line lady said not to worry as i could just redo when we come back in the summer. Are you saying that we can ask for the 33.99 per month for internet and we can have the phone included but we wont have to pay extra for a fixed line account? Sorry, it takes forever to get through on the English speaking line and can cost a fortune from where we live so would like to be prepared with what we need. We dont watch tv at all in France. Just need the internet. 
Hello Helen,
Are you thinking of getting it? We found the English helpline very helpful, we always had to do a reset when we arrived and they always got us back on line quickly. However you have two separate bills one for internet and one for the landline and phone, both coming to around 45,euros, without calls. We didn’t use the phone much but you have to have the landline under the second home contract. Finally, although currently I have had no problem contacting them on the English landline there was a time when no one ever seemed to answer. I have since found out the best time to call is the first part of the morning.
Hope this helps.
Briony
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Hi Briony,
we did have a plan before and it looks like we will have to reconnect. i have suspended the fixed line but accidentally cancelled the internet. I thought you may know of a better deal. It took so long to get through to Orange. they said it didnt matter i could reconnect when we next go to France but it does mean messing about with another box as you are meant to return it when you cancel. I think we may see if we can purchase the box outright so this doesnt happen again if we cancel. We only use the house for about six weeks a year at present so its expensive to keep it going when its not being used.
Why don’t you guys with holiday homes just get one of the non-contract, low cost, SIM-only deals with lots of data and use your smartphone as a wifi hotspot? Loads cheaper and really easy so long as your have good 3G / 4G coverage where you live.
Have a look at this current deal from SFR Red 20GB for 10€ a month
There are others out there as well - brilliant so long as you don’t want to do lots of streaming.
Mostly because there is no usable phone signal in the house and partly because it is going to be quite difficult to get access to iPlayer that way - VPNs either don’t work through a phone hotspot or are actively blocked by many operators. I did use a broadband router (the commercial equivalent of a MyFi type thing) with an external 3G antenna on top of a 4m pole before we had broadband and it worked(ish) but was not terribly convenient as a long term solution.
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There are much cheaper ways to watch TV. When my house was a holiday home I made do with a simple French smartphone contract and the availability of wifi in so many public places.