ORANGE Livebox Rental

It’s like everything else… we’re all different in what we’ve experienced and what decisions we make as a result of those experiences… be they good or bad.

Absolutely!

Soon in France all landlines will be via the internet. For people without an internet connection the landline provider will supply a box which connects to the net but can only be used for a landline phone. Yes you can keep your number on any supplier.

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The way that Orange manage their subscriptions might have changed - mine dates from 2015 so a similar period to yours. The 3€ was not, in fact, to rent the Livebox - it was (IIRC) for the TV service. It was just that the only way to order VDSL (which I wanted) was to take at least the base TV service. In turn the easiest way to make the TV service work (as I was paying for it) was to take a Livebox for which I paid a 50€ “deposit” and collected from a local electricals retailer.

So, out of interest what package do you have? Is it VDSL or ADSL - do you have TV or phone.

For the plain ADSL service you don’t have to take the Livebox - in fact I had an old ADSL modem on the line at first and it worked just fine (you have to know the correct VPI/VCI or VLAN tag but that’s all). If you want the TV you *might* be able to get it to work with a 3rd party modem, no doubt some Googling will reveal the answer. For the phone service I think that you DO need the Livebox as, although the service is VoIP it is not completely standards based.

It’s just that you couldn’t have the VDSL service (which I wanted) without at least he baseline

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Hello Billy thank you with what you say I might be getting to the bottom of things.
When I bought my house there was a more basic ‘white’ Orange box connected to the telephone socket. This was what was in use when I arranged my contract.
I only required (still do) - Internet and Telephone - NO TV! French TV is no good for me. I have a satellite dish and a Humax box for UK Freesat thank you very much.
So all I did was upgrade the white box to a black Livebox, not sure why now but as I say it was allowed as was not paying the rental.
Belt & Braces. I installed a Diesel generator with an ATS Automatic Transfer Switch). It took a bit of work as the generator and ATS were from different suppliers and I had to work on the interface. Now it is great when the mains electricity goes off the ATS senses the failure and waits 20 seconds just in case it was a short glitch, it then starts up the generator. When mains comes back the reverse happens. The generator is 6 kw and has 20 hours worth of fuel. It also has a trickle charger on the battery. slight digression but I will not worry about power failing to the telephone modem/if unit.
So what can I do to thwart Orange?
I just want a telephone and Internet cheaper than Orange and to be able to tell em to stick it where the Sun does not shine!

Second question - is the phone via the Livebox?

That is do your phones plug into the back of the Livebox itself or do you have a splitter which plugs into the phone socket into which you then plug a regular French T-socket telephone?

I think Billy has hit the nail on the head and it was what struck me on reading your first post. In your shoes I would tell Orange I’m not paying the Livebox rental because I do not have one of their liveboxes.

That’s what I was told, but when I took up an internet subscription with RED with an IP phone, I automatically got a normal geographic number. I had never had a telephone subscription in France before that, so had no number to transfer.

It’s probable that Orange consider *all* Liveboxes to be their property, but if neither TV, nor telephony via the Livebox are needed you can simply tell them that you have your own modem.

Exactly.

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The Livebox these days always belongs to Orange so you have been duped at Ebay. Give in and pay up.

As far as I am aware the outside telephone line feeds into the Livebox.
No fibre just Copper.
From this I connect to my Siemens Gigaset telephone and the Livebox acts as the modem for the Internet. I connect from the Livebox to an Asus router which is then used for my home Wifi.
The Livebox has its Wifi switched off.
So the Livebox is just used as a modem for the telephone & internet.
I do not use any of the Orange services.

So should I have to pay Orange rental?

I’ve got a bit lost in this thread… but you have a telephone line coming into your property…

So… I reckon that… Yes, you need to pay line-rental… and Yes… if you are using the orange livebox… you need to pay to use that too…

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Apologies to all, especially @gregca as I have realised my memory was wonky - it’s an age thing unfortunately.

It used to be possible to have just Internet, in which case you did not need to take the Livebox and could use your own modem. That’s how I intended to have things setup and initially it worked - but ADSL (up to 24mb/s) only.

It turned out that VDSL (up to 80mb/s) connection needed subscription to the TV package which, in turn, needed the Livebox and a TV decoder- so I recalled that bit correctly.

Now that I think more carefully I realise I was wrong WRT what I was paying for - the 3€ was for the Livebox, the 50€ one off activation fee was for the TV decoder. rather than the other way round

Apologies to @gregca for misleading him.

That’s the difficulty here I’m afraid, as far as I know Orange base their “phone via Internet” offerings on non-standard protocols (I think they are sort-of SIP and RTP but with propitiatory tweaks) - which means you are stuck with needing a Livebox. Orange almost certainly won’t accept that you have legitimately bought one from somewhere else because, as Orange do not sell Liveboxes, anyone selling them on eBay is doing so in a bit of a grey area (as previously mentioned) - they never owned the Livebox in the first place so technically did not have title to pass on.

Well, you do - you use the telephony.

A brief Google search does not turn up instructions how to use standard equipment in place of the Livebox to make use of Orange’s non-standard VoIP - just discussion that it is not possible.

Also Orange have stopped the POTS service for new subscribers, so you can *only* take service with Internet, TV and telephone via the Livebox and can’t have only an Internet connection (though there are 3rd party suppliers that will supply Internet only eg SFR).

So I think @greca’s options are either to swallow the 3€ rental (which, let’s face it, needn’t have been itemised) , or change suppliers and subscribe to a 3rd party VOIP solution (which, overall, might be cheaper if you have no interest in TV). At least it looks like you can get a geographic number on VoIP now (when I last looked it seemed impossible) but you’d almost certainly have to get a new phone number.

…or move to Sosh.

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Indeed, or any other provider who is able to supply the services that he wants as it looks like Orange is not that great a match.

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SOSH does look interesting.
I think this is the way I shall go thank you.
Has anyone changed from Orange to SOSH with good results?
Does this enable a quick end to the Orange contract or is it still necessary to stay with Orange for 12 months or so?
Having never changed provider how does it actually work?
Can you only change cancel at certain times of the year or is it a notice period?

I had an extensive “discussion” with Orange about the geographic number via our Livebox. I have been assured that we can keep our current Geographic number and have it rerouted to the digital service. (I have not done this yet, because we still use the Ligne Fixe, and have recently at times had to put the oldstyle non-wireless handset back on. (Ringing the DVLA drained the batteries before the end of the hour plus of waiting time!)

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Interesting discussion. I am particularly interested in your diesel generator setup. Sounds great to me…what generator do you have…how do you set it up and connect to mains system>

We have been with Orange for near 30 years. I have found their English speaking line very helpful over the years having spoken to them at least twice a year. Yes those old days when you could “cancel” for 6 months when you were away and save lots of money.
In those 30 years we have “owned” and “rented” livebox and other modems,
I have always been meticulous in returning, tracking and verifying a return of modem box.
I am sure there are other providers but for me Orange has been a good and supportive partner in all the years.