Internet. Again

Technology
1

We move into our new French house Thursday week. Rural part of Deux-Sevres, 5-6km from a town of any size. No phone line. (The old number disconnected in 2004 and now reallocated).

Selectra recommend a 4G box via SFR that plugs into the electricity supply and magics the internet into the house. According to them, our village has a decent 4G signal…according to a map of 4G coverage, it doesn’t - though a village around 2km away does somehow seem to register.

Is the only alternative a new phone line with an ADSL i/net connection ? And how long would that take to fix up ? And how much would it cost ?

Anyone have experience of i/net via satellite with SkyDSL ?

(Getting cellphone access doesn’t seem a problem - and in any event, we can continue ‘roaming’ with our non-French plan for a while yet.)

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Are there any neighbors with internet to ask how they connect and what speed they get?

Also it’s worth getting one of the speed test apps for you phone and using that to get a for what speeds you might get from a 4G box.

3

I use Bouygues 4G - excellent with great speed and coverage.

Test your eligibility here

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Property has no existing phone, so can’t test likely speeds ! Two neighbours both have i/net access via landline

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I meant mobile phone. As for landline you could try degrouptest with just the address.

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Just use your neighbours landline numbers to test what’s available locally - via ADSL or 4G

http://www.degrouptest.com/

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David, did you notice whether you got a 4G signal on your mobile whilst at the house?

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Good q - and the unfortunate answer is no.

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Didn’t notice or didn’t get a signal?

Edit: oops quoted wrong post. Should have been in response to David’s reply to Tim’s question.

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The Degrouptest site a fount of ideas I have to wade through - tks for suggestion…

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Trying to find neighbour’s email. Prob is if I do need a new landline + i/net, this seems to be a relatively lengthy process to get up/running and I don’t honestly fancy living off our phones for the first month or so in France - esp as the cell plans aren’t French !

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Have you tried looking them up in the phone book ? (if they’re listed of course!)

https://www.pagesjaunes.fr/pagesblanches

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Only know their first names! And…didn’t notice the signal strength (or whether 3 or 4G) when we last visited. Who knew it’d be important ?

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That doesn’t matter David - just look at the people in your town, village, area - maybe the Mairie, bar, resto - anything nearby!

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Thanks Ben…very helpful comments abt the SFR box. Could I ask what the signal’s like throughout a house - and whether plug-in repeaters might be needed ? (Not a big issue if they are…) Wireless printing Ok with this system ?

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Just one thing to note on the cost side of things. The SFR box comes in at 35€/month and the Bouygues one a little less at 33€/month - both with a 200GB limit per month. However, Bouygues offer an ‘unlimited use’ option for 43€/month - not sure if SFR offer the same - maybe @benvanstaveren knows?

On the Bouygues system - no repeaters necessary in my thick walled , stone house - printer, home security, surveillance cameras, video doorbell (125m from the house!), smart TV, IPTV, Google WiFi network and all our devices work seamlessly. The 4G box can cope with up to 32 connected devices.

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Hi Simon,
Ive been looking at the Bouygues 4G box as well. My (soon to be) new house in Aude has only 3mbps according to Ariase. Wont be upgraded for 2 yrs accordingto maire. The online bumf at Bouygues dosnt mention support for VOIP telephone, which is supported by all the providers over ADSL/VDSL/VDSL2/Fibre. I have this at my current abode and its great. Do you get this with the Bouygues 4G box ?

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No Raymond - no VOIP - they’ve disabled the socket on their routers. Maybe use your own router with their SIM in it? Maybe someone else has tried this?

I scrapped my landline at the same time as I got the 4G box last March - no need for it - we have those portable phone things !!! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Yeah, want to scrap the physical landline as well if I can. No point in having it really. Trouble is, I dont like these new fangled mobiley thingamajigs :-). Just looked up the SFR 4G box, and it does do VOIP with free calls to fixed & mobile. This may be what I go for.

Edit: And the SFR offering is a rolling monthly contract rather than fixed 12 months that increases after that.

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Cheers Ben ,:+1: