Hi
Yes Prixtel looks good for mobile phone contract but the data allowances won’t cover streaming regular football or movie per month.
I’d also have to factor the extra expense of 4g aerial to get a reliable signal into the house.
I think unlimited broadband over a phone line is my only option in the medium/long term.
Depends on how much streaming/viewing, I cant get fibre to my place yet so with no phone line its the 4G router and external aerial that I use. I had to change to an omni directional aerial as they swap masts frequently. My mobile contract gives me 100Gb which lasts 2-3 weeks watching a film a few times each week. I will probably switch to thw 210Gb service on my next trip. That will allow friends to use my wifi now that most UK networks charge £2+ per day or seriously cap roaming data.
I seriously doubt that you will get that within the allotted timeframe.
If the house has never had a traditional POTS phone line/subscriber, there will be a wait time to have the house referenced nationally. I’m not even 100% sure that you would be able to do this over the phone, you might have to physically go into a telecom store and discuss it with them, as the phone sales services are usually woefully over-enthusiastic as to what can be done, and will promise you the moon if they think they can get a contract out of you.
I can give an example, albeit, the person in question is French, and doesn’t have the issue of non-dom residential status and banking. Our new next door neighbour, for the house he has been doing up which already had a POTS phone line, but with no phone contract for more than 10 years or so, went to enquire about broadband for the house. He discovered that the house wasn’t referenced with Orange. The house had also been recently allotted a house number (similar to ours, we didn’t have one when we bought our home and the mairie gave them out some 3 years later). He has had to go through a two-step process: (a) having the house address referenced (there must be some kind of national database that handles this) for availability of a telephone connection of some kind (whether fibre or traditional) - this has taken about 6 weeks since he went in to the Orange shop, and (b) a second referencing of the house for fibre broadband (no more ADSL is being offered for new contracts in our hamlet because we have fibre infrastructure). This second referencing still hasn’t happened - now 2 months and counting since he made the request by physically going into the Orange shop.
Similarly, for some odd reason, our own house wasn’t referenced in the database that Orange uses for recognizing existing phone line connections, despite us having had an Orange ADSL contract for over 3 years. I had to specifically file a separate request (email) with the local territorial agency responsible for broadband roll-out and indicate the plot number of the property and some other code that was given to me by Orange (presumably some basic reference that they had access to internally). Even that process took nearly 2 months.
If you are not going to sign up with Orange, quite understandably, they won’t be interested in giving you those references. BTW, you can just sign up for broadband with Orange, you don’t have to take out TV or mobile phone contracts on top.
If you don’t have fibre broadband where you live, then getting ADSL might be difficult if a fibre deployment is already planned, as none of the telecom providers want to be installing POTS infrastructure when the onus is on them to start removing it more generally, in favour of fibre (or some other broadband solution, such as satellite or 4/5G).
RicePudding
Thanks for sharing your experience which I suspect similar awaits me.
I suppose if that’s the case I’ll have to start the process and see how long it takes.
The property itself has had mains electricity, mains water and public sewerage for 8 years and registered for all property taxes so should be on databases somewhere.
The number of the house is changing when the sale is complete along with cadestre numbers.
As mentioned above I checked on a number of providers coverage maps and all the properties surrounding mine appear to have fibre. Bouygues confirm on their site that addresses in the commune have a fibre infrastructure.
I’m hoping that once a line is installed it will automatically provide a fibre service.
Yes I am resigned to going to an Orange boutique and ordering a line install and take it from there.
8 years ago I bought a little cottage in UK which didn’t have a phone line. I needed internet and on day after occupation ordered an install with BT and within 5 days a line was strung from the nearest telegraph pole.
Can’t wait to see my 20yr daughters face when I tell her upon arrival later in August there’s no WiFi:grin:
Yes sounds like the fibre service is there. The relatives contacted the supplier after asking their neighbours who to call and it was installed in a week, no phone line, just the fibre cable.
Are you absolutely sure that fibre is not available in you’re commune ?. All of Carcassonne and most of the surrounding area is now fibre connected, with some exceptions, my commune being one of them up in the Black Mountains. You can use Ariase to check fibre availability and even when it may be available if currently not.
Unfortunately, you can’t do this from outside France, unless you have a VPN.
Edit: To check by commune, without needing an existing number, use the following
If fibre is available, the optical cable will have to be drawn from the nearest distributor box to the house. That will become your landline support.
When our house finally got referenced and “on-paper fibre-enabled”, Orange sent out a subcontractor to install the optical cable from the nearest distributor in the hamlet, some 300m away from the house, over 3 EDF pylons, and then underground via the same duct as the current ADSL and EDF cables through our land to the house. The guys who came out were up and down ladders for most of the afternoon as the EDF pylons were in neighbouring fields.
We didn’t pay anything at all for the installation because we were already Orange clients for the ADSL we had. Theoretically, the subcontractors should also have removed the DSL line from the last EDF pylon to our house, but they decided to leave it, just in case the new fibre installation failed to work as planned, because and I quote “once the ADSL is stripped out, they won’t simply put it back in again” (which is actually a pretty crap situation to find oneself in, really, so much for the “obligation de résultat/service public”).
At least you shouldn’t have that worry with your place when they finally get around to installing the infrastructure.
I had the fibre optique stuff put in last summer and it had to be Orange who did the installation but I am with FREE who let me keep my previous SFR email address but it still had to be Orange to put the fibres upto the new house as with all my neighbours as each property was/is finished. You may have to wait a while though, they are very busy with all the communes upgrading to fibre.
There’s always
<cough>
Starlink
<cough><cough>
I mention it predominantly for the sake of completeness.
They’re doing a great deal at the moment for people who live in rural areas. Think it’s about £100 for the dish instead of £460
Edit: although the French equivalent deal is less interesting
Hi Hairbear and others.
Sorry I was prevented from replying for a day as a newbie.
I can see the black mountains from our commune so hello neighbour 
Yes fibre is in the commune and the houses 30m away have fibre connected so I’m hopeful I can get a fibre service instead of a copper cable.
Really wanted to know if I could begin the ordering process here in UK so the next 2.5 weeks are not wasted but consensus appears to be I need to go into a store so I’ll have to wait until I get there. 
Billybutcher
I have seriously considered this option.
I like that you can cancel any time and then re-engage with the caveat you may be back of the queue if demand is high.
I was looking at the mobile option with a view to brining it home in UK and using it. I’m only on ADSL in UK too.
It’s pricey option though.
There are several problems with Starlink, on balance I would steer clear unless it were the only option (of course for much of la France profonde that will be true).
There’s a thread here with more discussion:
One could interpret that as desperation 
If you have access to fibre, then depending on exactly where you are, you need to talk to Orange to get the fibre installed or if you’re outside the Carcassonne city area, you need to talk to Emeraude THD
https://www.emeraudethd.fr/operateurs/
This will tell you if they cover your commune and guide you as to what to do to get fibre installed. Unless you’re in one of the communes immediately surrounding Carcassonne, it will probably be Emeraude THD that covers your area.
Hairbear
This is really bloody helpful. Thank you.
OK so I checked my address and as usual “property not found” but there is now an option to contact this business with the details and hopefully it may kick of a process.
On their coverage map it clearly shows all the surrounding properties are eligible with a few connected.
I really hope whoever picks my message and accompanying explanation is not a jobsworth and will try and help me.
I’ve screenshotted their map and then marked my plot and using google translate written a brief explanation of the property history and location.
This might just crack it 
Good luck ! Let me know what happens.
Of course.
Its a great site. You can geo locate your property and the map sets longitude and latitude coordinates and then allows a screenshot for them as a reference.
Wow looks like you got the right installer.
We have the fibre cable just outside our house. ADSL already installed, so the Orange installer only had to thread the cable through.
Guy arrived a day late without warning. Tried to feed the fibre cable through to the inside box. Couldn’t get it done, gave up quickly and said “you need an expert”… 
Trying with free now, hopefully they have some competent installers (this is in Aix-en Provence). At least their box works with ADSL if all else fails.
Ah that is bad luck indeed, the two guys who came out to us were absolute pros, albeit it did get off to a shaky start when only one turned up and said “Oooh, I’m not keen about climbing up a ladder to hang the cables in those fields”…Rang his mate, mate came out, said the equivalent of “yer big wuss” and promptly set off with his ladder across the fields and barbed wire to do it, no mess, no fuss.
We had a similar issue. The ADSL line was disconnected whilst they tried to thread the fibre line through the gain telecom. It snapped and the guy buggered off to another appointment. We were later told by another installer that they’re under strict instructions to not remove the ADSL line. I guess he didn’t get that memo.
All fixed now and absolutely loving my fibre connection so it’s all good.
