Telephone and Internet

[MrsD]

Apologies if this has been raised previously but my search of the forum is not showing recent discussions.

We are moving to France in the next couple of weeks. I want to arrange a landline and Internet service at the property. Who do you recommend? Do any of the providers have English speaking helplines? Average costs of services so I can gauge how good any deals are?

Many thanks

[suein56]

[quote user="MrsD"]I want to arrange a landline and Internet service at the property.[/quote]

If you need an English speaking helpline then you might be stuck with Orange.

If your house is remote or even remotish then you might be stuck with Orange or satellite internet.

Many of us no longer have a landline as such in that phone calls are VOIP calls through whichever box you settle for.

Orange offer broadband and unlimited phone calls in France and worldwide, including to mobiles for approx 30€ a month.

The others are in much the same price league.

But the speed you get will depend where your house is.

Sue

[AnOther]

As new arrivals I'd advise sticking with Orange, they have an English

help line (the only one which does AFAIK) and any problems with the line

or the service will be dealt with in house.

When moving to France there are 1000 things to do and organise and believe me it pays to get the easy things out of the way quickly.

You can always switch later if you wanted to.

You can call Orange from the UK on 0033 969 36 39 00

[NickP]

[quote user="MrsD"]Apologies if this has been raised previously but my search of the forum is not showing recent discussions.

We are moving to France in the next couple of weeks. I want to arrange a landline and Internet service at the property. Who do you recommend? Do any of the providers have English speaking helplines? Average costs of services so I can gauge how good any deals are?

Many thanks[/quote]

We use Teleconnect France, which is part of Budget Telecom. We've used them now for 8 years and had good service, there was one small problem for about 2 weeks 6/7 years ago when they upgraded, since then it's been fine. We have the Anglo pack which includes Internet, free calls to the UK, USA and Australia which suits our needs admirably, and costs around 40Euro a month plus line rental which I believe is about 16 Euro a month. They have an English speaking help line, and on the odd occasion when we've used it it has worked very well.

[Chancer]

Shows where savings can be made or the price to be paid for having English speaking support and a back up FT line.

I've been with Free for the same amount of time, have paid €2200 less than you over the same period and get free calls worldwide, 100 TV channels and a free mobile phone contract, the latter only for the last couple of years.

Free have a lot of written and video support in English now and definitely have English speaking support staff as its a recruitment requirement for all staff, setting up a system from scratch without understanding the language has always been possible (I did it) as their documentation videos are very graphic but now they even have this all in English:

http://www.free.fr/assistance/en/482-freebox-premiers-pas.html

Japanese as well!

http://www.free.fr/assistance/jp/

At last a French company that is not inward looking.

[Spyder]

Teleconnect AngloPack is 16.90€ a month for the 1st 3 months then 31.90€ a month including landline.

http://www.teleconnect.fr/Pages/Internet/Internet.aspx

[MrsD]

Thank you so much. I have just spoken to a very helpful man at Orange and seems to be sorted

[MrsD]

Thank you so much for your information. I have just arranged it all

[Mike_C]

I'd avoid Teleconnect. They try to claim hundreds of Euros retrospectively for ancient equipment and take money from your account with no warning. Do not give them your RIB!

Orange is very good, has English help line.