Upgrading to fibre

We don’t have the option and are unlikely to have it in the foreseeable future but certainly in terms of what it offers, we have absolutely no need of it. We can even watch French TV with our extremely poor connection although not advisable when the wind blows :rofl:

If what is being said is true re disconnection of the copper network then I can see we might be forced down that route in time but why rush if one doesn’t have to?

Just a reminder that there’s the less expensive alternative from Sosh (the “low-cost” brand of Orange).
“La Boîte Fibre de Sosh” is 30€/month (300 Mb/s down&up). For new customers (not already Orange or Sosh) it’s 20 €/month the first 12 months.
The TV box is optional, +5 €/month. We have smart TVs (and Apple TV box), so no need for this.

My situation as well. Fibre was promised by the end of 2021 in my street on the edge of Vire. Then by June 2022. Still nothing, to date.

But until they remove what serves a.t.mo. they’ve lost a potential customer because I have fired up my new TV, which has the Surfshark app running on it and I get iPlayer and similar on the ADSL, good as gold from Sosh, 19.99€ p/m

I have literally just upgraded from ADSL (1st gen) to fibre with Orange. I live in a rural area (6 houses in the hamlet and 2 outliers, of which we are the end-of-line).

The first time Orange tried to sell me fibre upgrade was a fiasco - clearly the sales department had gotten ahead of itself, as the fibre deployment wasn’t complete and the house wasn’t referenced “fibre-capable”. In fact it wasn’t referenced at all, despite us being with Orange for the ADSL. A whole month wasted, various people came out, received and returned the Livebox, etc. Much frustration and annoyance on my side.

I thought that was the end of it until a fortnight ago, when I spoke to my neighbour who’s just bought the other outlier house (2nd from end of line) and told me he’d been into the Orange shop in our nearest big town, and discovered that our house was now referenced with a big “F” on Orange’s satellite map.

Off I trotted to the Orange shop in question to enquire, and within 15 min, the order was placed, an appointment set for the installation to happen and Livebox and TV decoder duly handed over.

2 days ago, the subcontractor came and carried out the installation.
So far, it works like a charm. The subcontractors had to draw the fibre cable from the distributor box in the hamlet over 4 EDF pylons to get to the house, but after initial doubts, they managed fine in the end, and didn’t even need the cherry picker that they turned up in. It did take more than the 1.5 hours that Orange glibly announces as the duration of the intervention. The subcontractors scoffed when I told them, as Orange is particularly harsh when it comes to deciding whether the installation has been carried out according to “their” criteria, and it potentially affects the bonuses awarded to the subcontractors.

Anway, I now have 400Mbps download, and over 500Mbps upload speeds, which is a vast improvement over the 8Mbps down / 1Mbps up, of my previous ADSL installation.

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The subcontractors who came out this week to install our fibre connection confirmed that they are already programming removal of the existing POTS infrastructure at Orange’s request. It is coming, it is just a matter of when, not if.

Given the lack of fibre -and indeed ADSL in many parts around here (cf @andyw ???) - I’m not at all sure that removal of the old system is scheduled within my lifetime :thinking:

I forgot to mention that the installation was completely free of charge. At present, we are the only ones in the hamlet that have taken out a fibre subscription, and we are paying slightly over the nominal rate because we wanted the possibility to ring international mobile and landlines. If we don’t use that facility, and end up using calls from web/smartphone apps instead, we’ll probably scale that back.

None of the other residents, bar the new neighbour whose house isn’t even referenced as having any kind of telephone line, want fibre. Most are elderly, or I imagine, don’t want to pay the increased subscription cost.

We didn’t get one with our Livebox 5 (nor was it offered at the shop), but we already had one.

I dream of fibre @AngelaR

We currently use a 4G system, which is pretty expensive but is OK

Last year, when we asked the Marie about Fibre, all we got was a Gallic shrug.

Villedieu Intercom claim fibre will be rolled out sometime over the next 5 years.

Perk of living in the sticks on the wrong side of Villedieu

Did you find this out by pushing the button on the Villedieu Intercom and asking the garbled voice?

Sorry, it’s Sunday, and still relatively early, and my sense of humour isn’t up to much at the best of times let alone before the required gallon of coffee, but the thought of a giant all-knowing intercom in the centre of Villedieu to ask questions to made me laugh, even if it was only me who laughed :joy: