My knowledge on this is limited to what works for me. I did purchase a Huawei 5G router from a second hand store in Ireland and it was guaranteed ed unlocked . The exact same model in locked form is used by the major providers 3 and EIR and it seems SFR. I tried it with a number of different SIMs and some would work and other not. In each case it was absolutely necessary to do a fully factory reset to wipe out any access point or scripts whenever a SIM was changed . Basically there are a few settings that a SIM loads up into a phone before it knows who to talk to and on the router these have to be removed and replaced each time .So a Full reset ..typically the little recessed button is needed every time a SIM is swopped. I am happy to say that my Irish purchased unlocked Router worked flawlessly with SFR
Anyway some Networks will not log on and others will .And this could be the situation with the Orange SIM. . I don’t think you can complain when an Orange SIM will not use non Orange issued Hardware , no more than you can complain that your diesel car will not run on petrol . The contract is that Orange will provide a service
Orange absolutely can and will check if SIM A is in Thing B during initial registration onto the Orange mobile network (and at every registration and connection request they feel like afterwards) and refuse registration if they don’t like the answer.
There’s probably something to the effect of “This SIM is only intended for use in the router it is supplied with” in the OPs paperwork from Orange.
Good map. I can now see the tower that isn’t on the other site, and a newer one even nearer me (06/2026) that I didn’t know about. Where I am the colour varies from dark blue SFR, through to blue/green about 3 or 4 Mb/s for Free, which appears the best signal, just.
On the edge of the cell then so definitely worth trying a directional antenna - though the coverage rosettes on that map are a bit vague and imprecise - for the tower nearest me it shows coverage in a direction that I’m sure it does not radiate because it was specifically put in to cover the village (which lies in the opposite direction).
Now you know where the towers might be you could see if they show up on the ANFR map or on cellmapper if you try different operators.
Cheers! I’m in 27, but going wandering from end Sept until mid or late Nov.
I have now clicked onto the Free site, since they have the nearest tower, and they show my address being eligible for the 5G box, and fibre. However Orange say I am on fibre, in spite of the fact I haven’t been on for months now! I don’t believe what any provider says at the moment.
I suspect that a new provider might actually get their contractors to get their hands dirty and do some work, rather than just keep fobbing off a mug like me.
You could consider Sosh. It’s owned by Orange and uses their system. Rather than using shops and an English phone help line, all is done via its web site. So what? you may ask. The price is generally 40%-50% lower than the Orange equivalent for internet service or mobile SIM.
I started with Orange and moved to Sosh a few years ago. I have found the service to be better than Orange, and I have saved about 350€ per year.
Orange said I couldn’t have fibre despite their fibre contractor running it past my drive way to the last 2 houses on the chemin. Their “see if you can get fibre” tool said no to me, but yes to the last 2 houses, so I just got n with other things until 2 very polite chaps from Bouygues showed up offering all the internets one could ever wish for at just a couple of € more than my existing very slow and unreliable WIMAX service.
Having worked for a number of communication companies, the one thing they always suck at is internal communications within different teams/business groups.
Sosh is said to be more customer focussed than Orange - though I genuinely wonder how it would be possible to be less customer focussed outside of randomly phoning their client base and shouting at people.
So far (touch wood) my SFR Red connection has been OK - disappointed to realise they had been sold, but at least I’m not back to being an Orange customer by default.
Been there and have the T shirt. I had Free install a Fibre link 2 years ago. The guys who came were not Free employees but contractors and they did a lovely job ..as in they went across the road ,found a junction box with a free connections , dropping the cable down into what was an existing duct under the road and path , ten bringing it up and making a very neat connection exactly where I asked and then the tiny junction terminal .. and confirmed the connection to the junction box was fine using TDR and test data..But then a roadblock .No way would the link connect to Free . So they said problem up the line and they would report it .We contacted Free on a number of occasions .We still left with a 8 MB copper connection inwhich we had ensured for about 10 years. Next year went back still not working and I gave an ultimatum ..No change.So I cancelled with them However the networks all think I have a fibre connection. Hence my experiment with SFR and a 5G box this year and utter bliss . Speed of 600Mb achieved multiple times .So next year if necessary I just buy a new SIM and continue this success.a new SI M will be a new account .. It was 3 years ago not 2x
So I am sure that there is a stable of independent installers around and get a fee from the French state to implement Fibre , probably paid via whichever telecoms provider sent them on the job. I don’t think the cabinets or the connection points are owned by any telecoms provider ,instead are the property of a state Quango. For instance the cabinets along our roads have a logo on them called Bretagne something or other ,and with various badges of chambers if commerce.
When fibre became available in my old hameau, we were door-knocked (lie, we had a doorbell) by a young man purportedly from Orange - in truth, an authorised reseller or agent I suspect. I listened to the spiel and asked him about the 2nd year costs. Ah, he said, just phone me and I’ll make sure it stays the same. I didn’t sign up.
I had a good fibre service from Orange for about 11 months. The previous copper wire service was subject to slow or intermittent operation during bad weather…or sometimes in good weather.
When the fibre was given a planned intervention, lots of roadworks in nearby village, the service was never returned. Maybe a coincidence and damage was done to an overhead line at the same time? Maybe a cock-up or ??
Sounds the same as my experience. Water getting in somewhere no doubt but Orange were useless.
Bridged the couple of years between telling them to foxtrot oscar and the arrival of fibre with 4G, not brilliant in my case (at its best 70-80Mbps rivalling the old VDSL connection, at its worst which was a bit too much of the time, sub 10Mbps) but at least it kept us online and mostly able to watch iPlayer
As to the randomness with which SIM would work in which kit - that was much my experience as well. None of the 5G modem cards I had at my disposal would work at all, whatever SIM was in them. The 4G cards would work (the tower did not, and does not, carry 5G) just fine.
Starlink is the way to go my son lives in a rural area & switched to it recently as they have a deal on at the moment I think the kits free then 30 euros a month. He said it very good & easy to set up.
Orange sold me and someone else in another part of France the same phone number. First they wouldn’t believe it even when I asked them to listen to messages left for someone else in my.voicemail. Then they said all I could do was resilier the.whole contract and start again.
At no time were they accepting responsibility even when I proved the problem.
The failure to accept responsibility for what the company is legally responsible for seems a very French thing. It recurs in all sorrs of situations and I just can’t work it out.
Thanks for the tip, that’s the service I was going to try as a backup. I believe the data is capped though? That might be an issue for me as I work remotely
There’s no cap on my internet usage, and the ‘mysosh’ app doesn’t offer any capped Internet deals. However, I notice that new sign-ups for internet are now diverted towards the Orange website so anything is possible.