Orange, you have got to be joking!

Bob,
I didn't know that was possible. It was not proposed when we decided to go to SFR for ADSL. As part of the deal, we have to pay SFR for our calls, but they made it clear that we would have to continue paying line rental to Orange. Maybe there are regional differences?

why not just go with SFR for their whole package?. they supply the line,adsl and tv for about the same overall cost.. then you get unlimited calls to 100+ countries,, no time limit, no hang up and re-dial.. i've been with SFR for many years and pay 28€90.. yes.. 28€90pm due to a deal they made 6 yrs ago. the price is great and their service is pretty good too.. and Yes.. others will say they're crap and go to xx or yy.. but everyones mileage differs..

I pay €16,96 to Orange for line rental and €15,90 to SFR for ADSL.
So the total of fixed charges is €32,86 monthly. Calls are extra, so the final bill is variable.
For a long time, we used JaJah for cheap long distance, international and calls to mobiles, but they stopped trading earlier in the year. Unlike Skype, Jajah allocated local numbers for regularly used contacts, so you could make VOIP calls from your fixed phone. It is only since we lost their service that I have realized how much they were saving us, so I have been looking for an alternative. I am about to give Localphone a try and will report back when I know if it is any good.

I have a 2Wire router. It allows me to interrogate lots of technical details that are mostly over my head, but it has a summary page that is very useful and reports on Current Status.
When all is well, I see "Fully Operational."
When I lose the connection, I get "No Physical Link Signal." or "Service Error." The first of these usually happens after a nearby lightning strike and sometimes we also lose the telephone, so maybe an engineer is working on the line. The "Service Error." message seems to indicate a software problem at the exchange.
I sometimes go several weeks without a problem and at other times get several "Service Error." dropouts in one day.

Hi Krister, Just ran the French test and it came back with 25. Somehow I just do not believe that. At times, probably of high usage, after school etc. the download speed is comparable to my old dial up modem when I was in the UK.

Mike, So the total cost per month is ?

Internetfrog gave me 6 Mb/s. Where is that server?
Testing with a server in Washington D.C. gave 3.7 Mb/s and testing with a server in France gave 14 Mb/s.
So results vary, normally depending on distance to target, I suppose. Longer way, more possibilities of congestion.

Doreen, had Netgear routers in the UK and some worked fine others did not and were a pain.

Admittedly this was in the early days, late 80's/early 90's, and I was running with AOL on my Apple Mac. Only help available then was PC related and if you ran on a Mac you had to sort out most things yourself. I still have an account with them and when I looked the other day there is about 28,000 e-mail messages on there. 99% of it will be junk/spam and I should clear it down. At least it is still free but I do not use it as more in use for my company when I still had it.

BT charge me £1.60 a month to retain my old BT e-mail address and at the moment BT Yahoo is problematical as they say that someone cut through one of their underwater feed lines. True or not? Who Knows?

Like all tech it is magical when it works and absolutely depressing when it fails.

Checked again, as recommended, and it had moved up to 5.3 mbs. That is probably the best it has been here. The Black Livebox still cuts itself off with regular monotony and has to be reset. Never had that problem with the 'old' white box.

Lucky old you with 10 I have just checked with http://www.internetfrog.com/mypc/speedtest/ and we are getting 3.65 mbs. At the moment Yahoo is crashing with regular monotony as someone, not them of course, has damaged an underwater cable somewhere. So they say!! We received orange TV before but I have nor reconnected the white box since changing to the faulty black live box. Initially I was supposed to get the black recorder box then they telephoned to say I would have to pay extra for it. I declined and we just watch UK TV now via the SKY Sat. box.

We are with Orange. The broadband speed is ok, 10 Mb/s, but the exchange (200 m away) in our village does not have the needed technology so no TV over ADSL. And no "dégroupage" either, so the other providers are not interesting (nor interested).
Since TV over ADSL is not possible, Orange offers TV via satellite without extra cost. The satellite decoder required a €49 deposit (which is reimbursed when the box is returned to them). The previous owners left us a dish that was already pointing to the correct satellite, so installation was easy.

Orange does offer ADSL without TV. The offer is called Découverte.
http://abonnez-vous.orange.fr/residentiel/offres/decouverte.aspx

If you buy a broadband/telephone/TV package, you can get free-to-view channels without the need for an aerial or a dish. But if you are too far from the exchange, you won't be able to get the TV or anywhere near the claimed broadband speed, but you still pay the same price.
If you look at this - http://abonnez-vous.orange.fr/residentiel/offres-internet-ADSL-VDSL2.aspxl you will see that Orange do not offer ADSL without TV.
I am paying €15.90 per month for just ADSL from SFR. I have my own router, so do not have to hire one. Telephone calls are extra. I still have to pay line rental to France Telecom.

The broadband connection loses speed as the distance from the exchange increases. Beyond a certain distance the connection is not fast enough to carry live TV.

Like you, Mark, I moved to SFR some years back. Most providers offer a Broadband/telephone/TV package, but we are right at the end of the telephone line and don't get sufficient speed for streaming video. When I researched the market, I found that SFR was the best value for broadband/telephone only and that was my reason for changing. I am happy with their service and it would take a big financial inducement to get me to consider making a change. But I think a lot of people in the UK would be shocked at how much we pay. Not enough competition?
And how come they can legally get away with charging you for TV when you can't receive it?

James, this is why I don't touch Orange with a barge pole. Like John, I washed my hands of them and went over to SFR a few years back. Touch wood, I haven't had any problems thus far. Orange is the sort of organisation that makes you want to bring back the guillotine. I am with LaPoste Mobile for my antiquated mobile phone and you would not believe the problems I've had trying to get a monthly discount of a euro, because I'm an SFR customer and LPM is linked to SFR. Customer service in these organisations is so lamentable you just want to break down and cry. Best of British luck to you James. If you need someone to sharpen the blade of Mme Guillotine, I'm yer man!

I have no idea abouts costs but neighbours who have a large 7 bed maison bourgoise spread over 4/5 floors say it works well for them, they live at the limit of the signal from the village transmitter. I don't think my Orange mobile connected to the femtocell but can't be sure as I'd given myself access to their wifi by then.

Never had much of a problem with Orange, switched to Alice when ADSL first became available here and that was a real nightmare. Went back to Orange 6 years ago and had no issues apart from regularly failing Liveboxes. Only problem I have is that there is no mobile network coverage here, so was interested to hear about the Femtocell option, but before I go through the pain of calling customer services to order one, was wondering what anyone thinks of it...i.e does it actually work/does it cost extra each month (on monthly Orange Open phone, tinterweb and mobile bill)? Also I understand that this can be used with up to 4 mobiles - do these have to be defined on purchase or can the user change the numbers as and when needed and will it work for UK mobiles (guests in our gites)?

We used to use JaJah. Gutted when they went out of business. We liked the way they gave us local numbers to make long-distance and international calls on our fixed phone. Did anyone find an alternative that offered the same service?

Not really like skype, more like/identical to the offering Orange make with their internet phone. Just like that the vonage option is VPN which has much better line quality that skype. It is just phone not video though and just like the oringe internet phone it takes up some bandwidth - you need at leas 2mb spare for either. I have both and regular download stuff with no problem, however skype can struggle unless I shut every other access down.

The plus for me is the 'portable' phone number. Wherever I plug it in its the same.

No it connects to your router with its own 'modem'. I use it anywhere I go and can plug into a router, hotels but mostly now just at home and it gives me a uk number for my uk customers to dial. I do also have a french internet number with Orange but my comment was to say that one could get rid of the livebox and still have an internet phone