Wondering what package to ask for to cover tel,one mobile and internet with calls unlimited to
France and UK on landline. My bills are very large!
Orange do an all in one package, think we pay about €50/month
1 Like
with calls to mobile numbers with great limitation?
I must be doing something wrong my bills are very large!.
I think there is 1 hour free landline to mobile, but mobile to mobile is unlimited. Seems a bit arse about face, but it is Orange.
sounds odd!
Thank you Stella I will use this;
Hi Barbara,
We use this company https://www.uktelecom.net/
They do packages to include internet (although we don’t have this through them, I know their rates are competitive). We have our telephone managed by them (via Orange France) so if we get a problem we contact them and they get someone out straight away (typically within 24 hours unless of course it’s a weekend or bank holiday). Can’t fault them. We pay something like around €26 a month for unlimited landline calls to the UK and across Europe. You can set up a DD with them either form a UK bank or French bank. Hope it helps. 
Thank you.
1 Like
Orange are indeed a provider but from experience they are not very good, crashing systems and poor customer service.
In my experience Orange have provided a first class system backed up by very good customer service.
1 Like
In my experience too. Maybe we have been fortunate but I have no complaints.
Orange/France Telecom… folk either like the company or loathe it, so it would seem.
We’ve been with them for 20 years with no major hassle.
They lost lots of poles/cables in the recent storms and are doing their best to get everyone back…
I’ve met the local workforce and they seem genuinely concerned.
Just saying… 
Never really had any problems with France Telecom/Orange. Moved to Alice ADSL (Telecom Italia) when broadband first came to our area, absolute disaster, so moved back. Customer service always helpful, refunds given when due, problems solved reasonably quickly (And there is always a the English speaking helpline if your French isn’t too good).
1 Like
Hi Stephanie many thanks for this useful info on phones, I’ve researched the Company and they sound good to me. I have one simple question, do you know if I’ll be able to get an adaptor to use my Panasonic landline phone in France? I bought it in the UK 9 months ago but of course it has a BT connection.
Hi Ellen.
Yes, you can use your UK telephone with a BT Connection. You’ll need one of these RJ11 to French adaptors.
I am not sure what the quality of the line will be though.
Stephanie
Many thanks Stephanie, very kind of you to attach the connector so I’ll know what to get. Only 8 more weeks before we live near Ventouse (16)France - so much to get our heads around in the UK at the moment but all will come good I know.
Kind regards
Elle
Actually the UK phone plug is not an RJ11 - the plug and socket are specified by BS6312 and the plug is a 431A - they are physically incompatible so the above adapter is not quite right if you just unplug your UK phone from the wall and take it to France.
I can’t actually find a French style to BT 431a adapter on sale but you could use an RJ11 to BT431a along with the above adapter and it should work - eg something like this one (no endorsement, just the first hit on Amazon).
That said modern phones almost universally have an RJ11 socket on the phone and then supply whatever lead is required locally, so a UK phone should be fine with that adapter and an RJ11 to RJ11 lead which are easy to find and inexpensive. If you can find a lead for a French phone which goes from the French plug to RJ11 there is a chance that will also work.
One thing to be aware of, and the reason a phone might not work is that there is no standardisation of which pins the phone end of the connection uses. At the wall it should be the middle two pins out of the 6 (pins 3&4, following the US standard) but the phone might use the middle two or it might use the next two out (2&5).
How to tell - look at the cable supplied with the phone, RJ11’s are clear plastic so it is easy to see which pins have wires attached. Phones are commodity items and the leads are always the cheapest possible with just the minimum 2 wires connected to make the phone work, almost never all 6.
Also if the phone originally came with an RJ11 to RJ11 lead it will almost certainly use the middle two pins, if the phone came with a RJ11 to BT431a lead it might use pins 2&5 - because those are the pins used in an BT431A for the actual phone connection. Pin 3 (of the BT431a) is used for the bell signal which you can pretty much ignored on midern phones, but some older UK phones might not ring if this is not connected correctly.
Some notes on UK phone wiring here
How much do the adaptors cost? I recently bought a perfectly serviceable handset with a built in ansamachine for just over €20.
1 Like
F-010 to RJ11 - couple of euro, RJ11 to BT, I wouldn’t pay more than a couple of quid, RJ11 to RJ11 lead, again I would not pay more than a couple of €/£ for a 1m length one - maybe a bit more for a 5m one.
But you are quite correct, phones are so cheap it’s barely worth it to bring a UK phone over. Maybe if you have a good quality DECT system with a lot of handsets.