Maybe it was caused by the stabilisation period? At first the neighbours weren’t happy.
I haven’t noticed any problems with my ADSL & I download & upload very large amounts of data for work. But it wouldn’t surpise me if “Coincidentally” when fibre is rolled out in a village, the ADSL speed drops substantially, after all the aim is to get the whole country on fibre or 5G, Sneaky so & so’s.
2 Likes
Our ADSL has gone from the 30 to 40 Mbps range down to 12 now that Fibre is available.
Lots of pressure for us to change which I am resisting due to a near 50% increase in cost.
Even the techy who came canvassing unannounced agreed that for our type of usage we have no need for Fibre, but still the pressure for us to change continues.
We have just made the leap, cost has gone from 30 to 40€ per month but we now have Orange TV included speed from 2.5mb to 300mb (could have been quicker but a 100x increase seemed enough for me).
The increase in speed also now means that our son can work from our house now when he visits so now stays longer so certainly worthwhile.
1 Like
That’s surprising. I’ve always found it the most reliable site for availability and estimated speeds (for ADSL). I’ve used it for several locations in France. If you have an 09 landline number, I know it (and all the other sites) can go awry sometimes. They all rely on info from the telcos. If you’re unsure if it’s correct, using the address instead should always be accurate.
Splitting hairs 30-40Mbps is VDSL, not ADSL. Worth checking you haven’t been switched to ADSL accidentally somewhere along the way as 12Mbps is the top speed for ADSL2 (you should be able to get whether it is ADSL or VDSL from your Livebox)
Eg:
The eagle eyed will note that my connection had dropped again, it’s managing 30-60 seconds at a time just now which is a bit limiting. I’d bend Orange’s ear but we’re off back to the UK at the moment.
Well, yes because France, along with a lot of developed nations including the UK wants to get rid of metallic lines which are limited speed wise (especially aluminium) and need more maintenance to keep going.
We were told last year that we would have our copper infrastructure removed by the end of 2026. Not that long really.
1 Like
I think it’s stalled a bit in the UK - 2025 is in my head as the original “no copper left” deadline but there are some technologies like alarm systems which don’t move well to fibre. I still have some friends in the industry so might be able to find out a bit more if I put my mind to it.
1 Like
Well, if Orange want to change the means of connecting to the internet for their own benefit (less maintenance), then they are free to do so. However, I don’t see why I should be forced to pay for it to happen. I keep to my side of the contract by paying the bill each month, so they can keep to their side of the contract by providing the service. How they do that is not my concern.
To be honest, the fact that the connection is only at 12Mbps does not concern me as that is more than sufficient for our needs. Our TV comes from the satellite dish, we don’t run a business or work from home, we don’t do streaming, and nor do we play online games. I don’t need a Ferrari to go to the supermarket when a Sans Permis will do the job, so why should I be forced to pay for the faster speed that I simply do not need.
1 Like
It’s not Oranges decision to move everyone to fibre and remove the copper network, it’s government policy. Nor is it cheaper for them.
Or maybe a horse and cart ?
2 Likes
It’s not so much that fibre is less maintenance (it *should* be in the long run but that’s not the main driver here) it’s that money spent maintaining the existing infrastructure is effectively dead money - metallic lines just aren’t fit for purpose any more.
Orange1's cheapest xDSL offering is 38,99€ a month after the 1st 6 months, its cheapest fibre offering at the moment is 39,99€ - they’re not exactly asking you to break the piggy bank open.
1] There are other providers e.g. Sosh appears to be 30,99€.
The VPN will slow you down noticeably.
I may have jumped the gun - we’ve received advanced notice that our next bill will rise from £25 to £40 Euros/month but the line wasn’t actually commissioned until March 18th last year, so it’s not quite a full year. I’m now hoping that explains why none of the alternative suppliers is showing us as eligible for their services. I will check again in a couple of weeks.
Ha, even I wanted to contact Orange it looks like I’m out of luck as I can’t even run a diagnostic - I just get
I’m logged in to my “espace client” but if I try to go to my email it doesn’t seem to know who I am - not being able to get past the diagnostic stage means I can’t do the “live chat” and will have to call the helpline. Except that the English speaking line isn’t open weekends IIRC (I can manage online chat in French with Google translate filling in the holes if needs be but not so much on the phone).
Ah, figured that one now - it only works if you use your orange.fr email address to log in.
Frantic searching for the password ensued, as I don’t use my orange.fr email account. Amazingly I found the documentation in the house to discover that a) I have 223 email messages in my inbox (looking at the subject lines that will be 223 pieces of purest spam) and b) the “diagnostic test” thinks there isn’t a problem - which, to be fair right now there isn’t but it’s a whole 10 minutes since the connection dropped and reset.
Actually, it’s not quite true to say that the diagnostics didn’t find a problem - it thinks my TV decoder (which I literally never use, so don’t give a monkey’s about) has some problem with its connection to the Livebox.
Oh well… 
Edit: Here we go again
0.4dB noise margin is not viable (anything less than 3 is questionable even on a stable line and Orange seem to like 9 as the default on my line when it is behaving itself) - but then, it bounces back to 8.8 a few seconds later.
I just did a speed test, 220 download and 260 upload, always thought upload speeds were much lower🤔
It depends. On xDSL, yes upload is always lower. On fibre some services are symmetric, some not. It depends on the local infrastructure - for example chez moi in the UK the first supplier was CityFibre and I get a symmetric 500Mbps. Shortly after Openreach came along and their customers get an asymmetric connection.
Business ISPs are more likely to offer symmetric speeds.
The trick is to use the Orange app - I’d never bothered but I set it all up this morning and hidden away in there was 10 Euros per month off for the next 12 months, which I’ve applied. Sosh recognised my Orange details (Orange sub-brand) but although their offer was half price for 6 months, it was at a lower speed. None of the other operators could offer me service so they might not yet be plugged into our area.
To be fair the problem may not rest with Ariase.
When fibre arrived on the nearest poteau to chez nous I tried to apply using our landline number (not an 09 one…) & the address. Neither were accepted for fibre. However, Orange’s map definitely showed our building as now being eligible, but wanted to call it by a totally different address, that being a real one that’s some 2 or 3kms from us. I used Sosh’s online application, used the wrong address & we got connected the following week 
With the price of petrol these days perhaps it won’t be long before your suggestion will be viable.