I think all Telcos have Miss Conceptions.
that was in the early years of telecom liberalisation and digital signalling, idea was that new providers like UK telecom would strike deals with national and international carriers BT, France T, KPN Telia etc to carry calls at different rates dependent on traffic volume at anyone time, it became known as least cost call routing. And customer either used a number prefix before dialing or had a small box between network termination point and handset. It became outdated as cloud based and virtual switching replaced the Nortel DMS and GEC Plessey system X exchange routing switches
I managed a business offering such services to Barclaycard customers, call costs were billed to users card, (so no bad debt) we had about 80,000 subscribers before it was moved to Kingdom upon Hull telephones…they of the famous white call boxes.
It was the early days of real competition…then I had a short spell at Rabbit telecom, the least said about that ill-fated venture the better 
Although I never worked for a national carrier though Kingston (aka Kcom) might say they are being the only licenced PSTN in Hull ) I have to say if you value guaranteed quality and generally consistent connectivity above cheapness then a national carrier is generally the best bet as all the rest are re-users of the national carrier’s network…and industry terms resellers, and of very variable quality.
And did you know Orange was originally a name decided on by Hutchison (HK comany) for its mobile network in about 1986 over lunch in a restaurant in Herford. Little did we at the time expect it to become the National brand in France
Thank you to everyone who has contributed … it seems that there are quite a few avoidance suggestions, but recommendations difficult to find - not unusual in the telecoms market anywhere perhaps.
As we are in remotest Gers, we already have a rugby pitch size sat dish, but it consequently doesn’t like wind gusts much, so we have already discounted that for internet. Also, I have a 4G router that I could use, but unfortunately it isn’t actually any use in remote areas as there isn’t a regular signal of any G (let alone 4) anywhere near us!
The problem I find with the main providers is that they seem to want to supply everything including useless (in our case) TV, plus landline, and the kitchen sink etc. All we want is the internet side of the wire. I even have the VOIP modem already as I purchased that three years ago.
The other silly thing is that fibre cable was installed along our nearest small ‘main’ D road linking local towns less than 1km away several years ago, but linking in our little hamlet … !
I’m surprised Robin. Certainly our experience with Orange is they have been very happy to let us drop our landline and just have our phone via the internet. We have also been able to keep our old landline number which our friends recognise - an advantage in this era when nuisance calls and internet phone numbers are similar.
So in fact in both our gite and our house we now get a cheaper service with no landline rental. And we also don’t have the TV - don’t need it, not “forced” on us.
There has been much activity of late with companies offering 4G solutions to customers in the countryside under a Govt funded scheme.
Here’s one
(there’s a whole thread about the Bouygues offering here which is worth a read).
Orange too have a 4G offering.
Steer away from Satellite - its grossly expensive.
Many of the sites will provide a coverage map which is constantly changing as new facilities are brought on board.
Technology has also moved on with 4G routers. Don’t be misled by the apparent lack of a 4G signal to your phone… the 4G router aerials are far more powerful.
Thanks Graham,
I did find and read the thread you’ve linked-in, and I agree fully with the sentiments of what you say, but it seemed that a lot of others appear to have experienced the same signal problem on that thread.
I have a very good Netgear 4G modem that I used with brilliant success in a temporary awful copper-wire problem area in the UK, but it had to be in direct line of sight of a 4G aerial to be really successful (I understand that is still the case?) so when we moved a mile across the village and out of direct sight, it was not good (nor was the mobile signal). However, I haven’t tried it in France. I just know that all the maps show the only 4G signal to follow the line of the road I mentioned previously.
4G would certainly be my preference again, but I would need to find an accurate signal map, and check new deals. (If anyone has good links to such, it would be appreciated).
Thanks Sue,
To be fair, I have only so far looked at Orange on their standard website. I am still arguing with the current suppliers (or rather they are arguing with me, the customer!) to try to buy a bit of time, as I have very little spare myself at the moment. I fear I will need to make some more time unfortunately, and it doesn’t help being stuck in the UK.
We currently have broadband provided by UK Telecom (the new owners seem to be having problems just now) and the problem is that the line into Montalbert village is about 10km from the exchange in Aime. We use to get a variable range between 1Mb/s up to sometimes 9Mb/s. I think that the nearest mast is 5 km away. We have been looking at trying 4g at some stage. The apartment downstairs seems to have an external 4g aerial and whilst Bouygues Telecom doesn’t seem to offer 4g broadband, Orange does. If I were to purchase a Huawei B311 2020 router and Poynting Omni direction 4g aerial and got an unlocked sim that offers French roaming do you think that it might work as Orange seem to think that there would be a 4g signal for them?
Sorry about the ramble,
Stay well,
Duncan
IIRC, the Orange sim is locked to the Orange 4G router so won’t work in another device.
main risk is that the more you have " work rounds" the more scope for a connectivity issue somewhere in the route and then it’s matter of working out what is causing the failure
I’d like to echo what Sue said about Orange, Robin. When I finally got free of Teleconnect, the Orange package I got gave me a VOIP phone (with my old number carried over), broadband and no TV (since there isn’t a hope anyway of getting it along 3km of wet string) and the price was good. Even though we are not that far from a (small) town, any form of mobile signal is erratic to say the least so that certainly wasn’t an option.
Graham what do you reckon to a UK bought unlocked Huawei 4g sim router paired to the Poynting external aerial and an UK bought sim that offers EU roaming? I agree that simple means less chance of ‘work rounds needed’ John but our problem is that we only were spending 4-5 months down in France and paying for 12 months at £38/month.
I use that arrangement with a Voxi UK unlimited sim at the moment, got the option of piggybacking onto Orange 4g or SFRS 4g, I get 30-40mbps most days dropping to a worst 12mpbs.
Hi Angela,
It was Conception that dealt with us and I have to say, it is lovely to be able to switch on the computer and get internet straight away with no breaks. We got the internet working over the weekend and then on the Monday, the phone became unusable because it was so crackly. Managed to get a signal and phone Orange on the mobile who responded quickly and found the problem on the network. Now today, it is a cut in electric power. All we need now is a problem with the water. Oops, we have had that for many years and is ongoing.
Oh the joy to live in rural France.
Hi Elizabeth
I can sooooo relate to that! Good to know that the delightful Conception is still there. Otherwise I am relieved to have left Teleconnect 
Graham, were you relaxed about the €50 that Orange charge when you cancel the contract? I think it’s a cheek for them to charge - most people will have been with them for yonks.
@lebeuil1 I don’t recall paying that.
There is a fee if you don’t return the Livebox and LiveTV equipment but as we handed them in at the local Orange shop (and obtained a receipt) I don’t recall any charge being levied. I don’t honestly recall any post cancellation regrets or emotions about being ripped off by them. A detailed analysis of the payments we made to Orange at the time didn’t reveal any excess payments.
It’s much like the charge they say they will levy for an engineer to attend. This is a forewarning that if the issue turns out to be of your own making they will charge but in our case, it turned out to be an Orange issue so no charge was ever made.
We owned our livebox and there was no issue about that. The €50 penalty on leaving is in their terms and conditions and we were charged it.