Out of interest what ADSL speeds do you get, what 3G speed did you get and was this through a phone indoors, phone outdoors, router with an indoor antenna or router with an external antenna? Oh, was it recently or a while ago?
I must admit that 3G is only worth it if you get a HSDPA connection (Android phones will display. an ‘H’, rather than ‘3G’ in this case).
Hopefully Orange will see the sense that it was OK previously and give it a go. I must admit if we really are talking 8km then 512kbps is fairly impressive!
I get about 2Mb/s download but that’s enough to watch Netflix and the occasional Channel 4 programme. I’ve never measured my 3G download speed, all I do know is it would not stream video and was much slower to use than the ADSL, the 4G streams perfectly and is much faster slround. I get a good mobile signal upstairs in my house and if I use a phone as a mobile hotspot I can use my iPad downstairs.
If you get 2Mbps on ADSL I can understand your antipathy to 3G, especially if trying to stream video as I’d agree that 3G is not the best way to connect if you like Netflix.
I’m over in Brittany for the weekend so I will re-check what 3G speeds I get at the house.
Back to Maggie’s predicament it would be easy enough for her to check whether 3G is an option - check download speed with the Ookla app on her phone (worth doing indoors and out) and reporting back what the results are.
At present I am using an airbox supplied by orange whilst my line is down - it is supposed to run on 3G - its not as tempermental as the livebox and I note when I watch its performance on the app it sometimes clicks into 3g so my feeling is we are in a dead spot or on the perimeter of one - however I tel the english HL again today ready for an argument but for some reason unknown to me they are sending a technician out tomorrow afternoon - will update when they have been - as for the Maire - they do not seem interested - thanks for all the suggestions given - I just do not want to go from one poor service to another when hopefully something better must surely be on the horizon. Hell this is 2018 and to me having a good internet and telephone service is paramount.
Ever since we bought our house in 2004 we’ve had dreadful internet speeds, it hovers around 1MB. We’re around 9ish Ks from the exchange so up until now I’ve thought myself lucky it works at all really. But now I’ve had enough of paying top dollar for lousy service so I’m going to start, clutching my local voting card, to agitate in the Marie.
I’m accumulating proof of how bad my service is, how not too far from me the service is very good and how M. Le President (or young Manu as I prefer to call him) promised us all blistering high speeds “toot sweet” as we say in the Var.
The proof of the lousy service comes through an organisation called SamKnows https://samknows.com About eight or so years ago I found them in some search or another and signed up (for free) and they sent me a little box that analyses my line and sends me an email each month with performance data. I can also logon to my account and check out different performance indicators on my dashboard. The proof that people not too far from me have excellent coverage comes through this interactive tool https://observatoire.francethd.fr
You ain’t gonna believe it but the Orange technician did not turn up yet again - this is the 3rd time I have waited all day for this lot - words fail me…
1Mbps at that distance is pretty amazing actually, it sounds like your maire should be agitating for VDSL in the village - although if you live in a distant hamlet a mobile (3G or 4G) signal might be the only option.
Talking of which - Maggi hasn’t said how well (or otherwise) the 3G box is working or what sort of speed she is getting from it.
However, as David and I were discussing our different experiences of 3G here is the result of some totally unscientific and probably unreproducible testing I did yesterday and today - all with 3G HSDPA connections.
Location
Speed down
Speed up
Network
On the ferry coming into Cherbourg
8Mbps
2Mbps
Orange
To the rear of the house outside
7Mbps
1Mbps
SFR
To the rear of the house outside
2.5Mbps
0.8Mbps
Orange
To the front of the house outside
1Mbps
0.5Mbps
Orange
Inside the house
0.5Mbps
0.25Mbps
Orange
Inside the house was actually just by an upstairs window - there pretty much isn’t any signal more than 1-2m from a window.
There are two cell towers close to the village (within 1km or so) - I’m pretty sure that moving to the front of the house puts it between me and the one to the East of us, hence the lower speed.
The figures certainly encompass David’s experience and the HSDPA part is important since 3G data speeds “evolved” and were originally lower. In fact HSDPA is sometimes termed 3.5G but it has been fairly ubiquitous at 3G towers for a few years.
However it does show that 3G can provide reasonable speeds - if you have a decent signal and a tower that implements the modern 3G data standards - certainly more than a 5, 6, 7, 8 or even 9km ADSL line.
However it also shows that speeds inside might not be that great in which case you may need a system with an external antenna (I’m not going to recommend a signal booster as - as far as I can see these are illegal in France)
Despite being on the ridge of a valley our phone signal is weak. I accosted a poor Orange technician who was working on a patch panel about 2Ks from our house and he told me that high speed was planned for sometime in the next 24 months but who knows.
Back again, according to the web when I get it, that is, the dongle does report now and again that I have a 3g connection but its not all the time. I like the portability of this little dongle but its way too expensive for me. Orange techs were supposed to arrive on Thursday and again we waited all day and no sign of them, around 6 pm I get a phone call to apologise (car broke down) and they wanted to re-arrange the appointment to Monday at 1 pm but so far no joy yet again despite pushing the fact they had not turned up to the at least 3 appointments. Suspecting they were not arriving on Thursday I telephoned the hotline and she was quite cheeky and stated I had already telephoned and the technicians were there although I could not see them as they were working on the lines outside, total BS of course - she promised me that my line would be operational by 7 pm - I notice this lot are good at solving problems as long as they are closed when eventually nothing happens. I think what gets to me is the fact they keep saying I promise - when really all they want you to do is get off the line and stop bothering them until next time. I have paid Free 11 euros this month so far over and above trying to keep calls to a minimum, most of it to the English helpline,
Seriously all I want them to do is remove the temporary wire straddling the place and admit that they are unable to repair or reinstall my ADSL line - then I can move on - not too much to ask is it. I would never have believed that they could get away with what they do. Its coming up to 5 weeks now. My bill was still an atrocious 37 euros believe it or not - why then would they care, something for nothing really.
Great News, after 5 weeks and umpteen missed appointments at long last an expert technician from Callac ie just down the road from me has repaired my line - he also removed the temporary line, and the problem would you believe it was a faulty cable inside the house - one originally installed in 2003 - so happy - got my ADSL line working again - it took a lot of persistence to get Orange to fix - my suggestion is they train their technicians properly - serious basic stuff - that should have been tested from day one. So very thankful that the contract technician from Callac actually knew his stuff. My phone is back!
Thanks Paul - having no phone line is a serious pain. Unfortunately my options here are so limited re broadband. Many thanks to all suggestions offered.
Maggi well done!
Dump Orange (or any fixed line service!) just as soon as you can.
Let Boyygues tell you when their 4G Box is available at your address. Just use the link below to test your eligibility and, if you’re not currently eligible, you’ll be given the option to register your email and be alerted when you are.
I’ve done this Simon. 4g has only just arrived in our area so I am waiting for the email from Bouygues to tell me their service is available here. I wonder how long it will take?
Our internet connection is terrible. We pay for 2mb and get a download speed of about 0.25mb… and that’s on a good day.
Good luck Mandy - hopefully not too long. It will all depend on the 4G mobile signal saturation / usage near you - if it’s pretty low / reasonable then they’ll roll it out pretty soon. The idea is it’s made available to folks in rural, low use areas - too many 4G data subscribers would put too much of a strain on the current ‘mobile’ network - and that would never do !! That’s why they don’t offer this magnificent service to the townies
Just to get you going - here’s my speedtest from a few moments ago - and that’s at the lunchtime peak!!
Strange isn’t it - we’re in the foothills of the Pyrenees in between Foix and Pamiers - only an hour (thank goodness!) South of Toulouse and yet the 4G coverage throughout the Ariege is just excellent. We’ve only got a population of about 155,000 in an area 10 times the size of Andorra or, if you like, a quarter the size of Wales
That’s why they don’t offer this magnificent service to the townies 
