Hi @JohnBoy - sorry to hear your issues with Orange, our neighbours are also in same situation and cannot get any feedback from Orange as to what is going on!
Dreadful customer service.
Perhaps of some interest to the SF community, is that we bought Starlink and it’s been so easy to set up and give super fast (250mb) service. So easy and I see they now have a special offer on of €199 for the kit and €40/month !!
It really is awesome internet so far.
R 
3 Likes
Can only recommend Starlink. Fast and competitive. See topic on improving internet speed wih our personal experiences. One neughbour with Orange. Orher with Free. Neither working
1 Like
Now day 10 without service. Called Orange again and now they are saying that the problem is beyond their control as the fault lies with another providers equipment that our Orange line gas to pass through. Latest prediction for reinstatement is now 1st September at the earliest!!!
Currently comunicating via smart phone some kilometres from home where I can get a signal.
Starlink. The offer of €199 and €40 per month sounds ok on the face of it but:
Surely it only provides internet services from the users home base so a mobile contract would still be needed in order to have a contactable phone number?
A french mobile contract that enables you to ring UK landlines is very expensive so does Starlink somehow allow you to ring UK landlines?
Does the €40 euros per month give unlimited internet access?
I have had experience of satellite internet prior to switching to Orange some 7 years ago and found it ok but with many limitations compared to my Orange contract, when it is working!
Sounds exactly the same as a response from BT in the UK. time to find an alternative. Maybe mix internet and mobiles? What do you want you want to achieve?
We’ve been through all that too. No end of extra GB but mostly useless because our 4g is also useless. But Orange keeps trying to sell me a new 5g phone…
Yup!
Since our service was lost we have had sms messages a plenty trying to sell us super dooper this and that package that will revolutionise our lives.
We just want our current package restoring!!!
And this yesterday evening.
I did disconnect our live box although it was pronounced dead 10 days ago!
Correct, Starlink is purely an alternative to the Orange broadband. You could use Voip based solutions for a contactable mobile. I have just ported a Three UK SIM number to Xpatfone (Devyce). It enables me to call and be called on my UK mobile number whilst connected to wifi or on 4g (I have a Sosh SIM for France calls etc).
Yes, unlimited internet access - currently i get an average of 200Mbps down and 25Mbps up on Starlink
1 Like
This post will have no interest to those who benefit from all today’s internet technology offers, or that of a simple land line. Without even thinking you will enjoy the benefits nany times in a day. The world is now Almost totally dependent on all the communications systems at our fingertips.
Imagine you had all this taken from you on 16th August and today the 6th September you are still without.
Your provider gives you extra megabytes so that you can hotspot from your smartphone but what good is that when 4g can only barely work from the bottom of your garden.
Orange say it is out of their hands as the problem is with another provider?
It seems the problem is affecting an area in the Dordogne and they still don’t know when it will be fixed.
I am told we will be compensated when the service returns but until that day arrives they cannot calculate how much.
Enjoy your wifi, internet and all that comes with it.
I am being shouted in for tea now so am walking ba k up the garden into no mans land.
I bought my first mobile phone in 1983, it was like a brick but probably could do more than my phone can do today.
Get connected Get Orange.
Tough one John in this modern world. Just managing your expectations though. As I think I mentioned above, took friends of ours TEN WEEKS. Same issue - Orange and Free - each blaming other - not a good scenario. Frequent trips to MacDonald’s was their solution.
This is one of the things I struggle with in France.
A provider wants to wash their hands saying it’s another company’s fault.
Yes, from a personal point of view I sympathise that they can struggle to get that other company to do what they should.
But the French presentation of this seems to imply, that they have no legal responsibility for the service they provide, including subcontracted services or other services (like mast use) they pay for, that have affected the service they provide to me.
Surely this cannot legally be the case. I am really surprised so many big companies, even ex-government enterprises like Orange, seem to present this as though they are not legally responsible and should not have to make right and compensate.
I’d really like to know the legal position, as compared to my own Anglo expectations that a company is responsible for providing the service they have contracted to provide me with.
It’s why I’ve never been overly keen on this sort of artificial creation of a “free” market with one company providing infrastructure (and therefore typically one removed from legal responsibilities to the end user) and then multiple “providers” offering service using the infrastructure.
Too much chance that, should there be a problem, the network owner and your retail privider will each be pointing the finger at the other leaving the customer as piggy in the middle.
1 Like
Trouble is, only a nationalised company (e.g. GPO/ France telecom/SNCF/British rail/EDF etc ) could afford to put the infrastructure in in the first place. Deregulation while creating competition, can create problems. After using some of the alternatives, I went back to EDF and Orange. Orange is probably more expensive than its competitors, but I don’t think you can beat the EDF tempo tarif
2 Likes
There are actually multiple operators laying new fibre in the UK but it tends to be something of a monopoly or at least an oligopoly in each location - I have a choice of BT Openreach or CityFibre locally but not, say, Hyperoptic.
Not sure that there’s much diversity in the French market though.
Latest update from Orange when our service might be restored
Friends have lent us this little beauty which operates on the Bouygues network.
We first tried it on the west facing side of the house in the lounge window where we can get a weak Orange signal occasionally and like Orange,no signal.
On the East side of the house in a window directly opposite some 7 metres away we got a strong Bouygues signal and nothing from Orange.
Very happy this morning with our temporary fix.
So many SF threads to catch up on, I maybe a while
2 Likes
Outrgeous. Especially if you were in an area - like here - where Orange is the only network and not even ADSL is adequate.
What are they doing, waiting for parts from China or something?
.
At least 5 weeks is plenty of time to swot up on your rights to refund and compensation.
I ask because i don’t know but is that like most in UK using BT lines to service internet customers?
Yes
Thanks. Reading French news all the fibre rollout has slowed dramatically. Been reporting this for weeks now. Given the percentage who now have fibre this was bound to happen. We will stick with our alternative as it is working perfectly and fast for internet. Also take calls at home over wifi. Not sure that going fibre is going to provide many more advantaged when it eventually comes. Maybe you or others can tell us what adfitional benefits it will provide as I’m in the dark on that and would like to know so we can decide at the time.
Fibre will arrive in the village on the 29th November. I have a choice of 10 operators. Admittedly, I’ve never heard of five of them. Strangely, my current provider (RED) is not in the list.
Just started looking at some of them, and Free seem to be offering 5Gbps down plus 700Mbps up for E 29.99 with no engagement.