How much do you pay for your landline and Internet phone?

[virginia.c]

Am trying to find out how much I should be paying for my Orange/France Telecom landline and internet. I have spent so many brain numbing hours on the phone to said company and been given so many different stories that I thought I would ask here.

In brief, like so many others, I am not in France full time. I have a landline and an Internet line with all my calls being made via the Internet phone as 90% of them are international and the deal for international calls is bolted onto the Internet phone. I have wireless and use the Internet all the time. I prefer to leave the phones on all the time as I never know when I will next be in France and often have very little notice. My Internet speed is very low, only 512 kb but this doesn't seem to make any difference to either the Internet phone or wireless (one of the frequent stories I heard when trying to get a phone in the first place though was that I couldn't have broadband /wireless as the speed was too

low). So, here i am two years later, fed up with paying a veritable fortune for the phones and being told that there are no more reasonable deals to be had. Any information from those who are or were in a similar situation would be very gratefully received!! Oh, and it's not an option to do without them for work and personal reasons, I only wish I could!

[Val_2]

Have orange livebox,internet which is very fast,WIFI,unlimited calls in France,one hour free to mobiles and a FT landline and I pay €39/month for all that plus extra charges if I call my daughter on her mobile in UK for longer than the limit so on average it can be between €42 and €46 per month. Considering we were paying €35 for internet and €16/month landline rental its about the same but only one invoice now. Don't forget that TVA went back to 19,6% in Feb for part of the invoice. Dare say there are cheaper packages but you drive yourself insane comparing and asking around at the end of the day.

[virginia.c]

Thanks Val. Does that include your line rental? And does your package have a particular name?

[Danny]

Virginia,

current Orange offers

http://abonnez-vous.orange.fr/residentiel/comparer-offres-internet.aspx

if you want to save some money, you can do without the landline (as Val has) and save maybe about 10 euros per month. The cheapest package without landline is 33,90 pm plus 3 euros if you rent the livebox so 36.90 total.

http://abonnez-vous.orange.fr/residentiel/forfaits/livebox-zen.aspx

This includes international calls to landlines and not to mobiles anywhere. Any calls outside of thie ones included are charged for.

If you want to keep your FT line, then the cheapest package is the same one but it is 28,90 plus 3 euros livebox rental. You continue to pay the 16 euro per month for the FT line.

Attention....Orange offers will possibly change a bit this Thursday as it is the start of a new commercial period for them.

That means the above info will be out date soon.

Danny

[virginia.c]

Thanks Jane and Danny

Am paying more than that currently. When I last phoned them they didn't give me anything similar to what you have mentioned and told me that because my speed was only 512 I couldn't have anything cheaper. Then the next phone call tells me something else and every other phone subsequent phone call something else entirely. If I could do without them I'd happily live without.

Will try to calm down and try once more tomorrow!

[Jay]

I'm with Teleconnect and that costs me 29.99 a month which includes 2 hrs free phone calls and the rest at cheap rate through a normal FT landline. With line rental and all our calls we average out just below 50 Euro a month. While they did have a few problems at the start I can't fault the service now. Using the landline for the calls is a bonus, none of the crackle and pop of VoIP.

[Pickles]

24.90€ - Numericable, 30Mb/s Internet and telephone, unlimited free calls to European landlines and N American landlines & mobiles. The phone goes over the cable system so no line rental.

regards

Pickles

[pachapapa]

[quote user="Jay"]I'm with Teleconnect and that costs me 29.99 a month which includes 2 hrs free phone calls and the rest at cheap rate through a normal FT landline. With line rental and all our calls we average out just below 50 Euro a month. While they did have a few problems at the start I can't fault the service now. Using the landline for the calls is a bonus, none of the crackle and pop of VoIP.
[/quote]

I am sorry to read that the interference from Rice Crispies is so bad on your TeleConnect Modem that you are obliged to subscribe to an analogue telephone connection costing you € 20 per month extra even before the cost of the phone calls.

[EuroTrash]

34,99 a month to Alice (now unfortunately part of Free.fr) for ADSL and unlimited free landline phonecalls to UK and Europe. You can get add-ons to call mobiles etc but I have never bothered. You also accumulate points that give you a free month every couple of years - that I do bother with.

[Val_2]

Yes that price does cover the FT line rental at €16+ per month. We just went upto Orange and asked for the best deal for us as we do need a landline for our business. We had a fax too on another land line but the rental shot up and the fax did not work with the internet even though it was a french unit,still with a scanner these days you don't need fax so much.

[Danny]

[quote user="virginia.c"]Thanks Jane and Danny

Am paying more than that currently. When I last phoned them they didn't give me anything similar to what you have mentioned and told me that because my speed was only 512 I couldn't have anything cheaper. Then the next phone call tells me something else and every other phone subsequent phone call something else entirely. If I could do without them I'd happily live without.

Will try to calm down and try once more tomorrow![/quote]

Virginia,

It may well be that your line is not suitable for the ADSL contracts without FT line. If the capacity is marginal for ADSL then you may have to keep the FT line and of course keep paying the line rental.

If that is the case, another possibility is to have a basic internet only service at 21 euros p/m http://abonnez-vous.orange.fr/residentiel/forfaits/decouverte.aspx?idnode=110414005 and use other services for cheap telephone calls like telerebais for example. Most international calls are charged at local FT rates.

Danny

[virginia.c]

Last month I thought I'd got it sorted. One hour on the phone and I was just about to go for a 48 euro all in landline only (you can get rid of the Internet phone as all your international calls will be bolted onto your landline madam). When she suddenly said 'eau no, you can't 'ave eet, you are too slow'...

[Jay]

[quote user="pachapapa"]

I am sorry to read that the interference from Rice Crispies is so bad on your TeleConnect Modem that you are obliged to subscribe to an analogue telephone connection costing you € 20 per month extra even before the cost of the phone calls.

[/quote]

Rubbish! The landline costs about 16 Euro a month as you should know from previous posts, anything extra is for phone calls additional to the 2 hours free. We have a slow connection living in the sticks so VoIP was not good and I think the OP would also have the same problem with a very slow connection.

[pachapapa]

[quote user="Jay"][quote user="pachapapa"]

I am sorry to read that the interference from Rice Crispies is so bad on your TeleConnect Modem that you are obliged to subscribe to an analogue telephone connection costing you € 20 per month extra even before the cost of the phone calls.

[/quote]

Rubbish! The landline costs about 16 Euro a month as you should know from previous posts, anything extra is for phone calls additional to the 2 hours free. We have a slow connection living in the sticks so VoIP was not good and I think the OP would also have the same problem with a very slow connection.
[/quote]

Obviously not for me then.

It would be hard restricting myself to just THREE NORMAL DURATION CALLS TO yUK PER MONTH.

[sid]

Just for comparison, I use the regular FT phone line, no special offers for calls, we use Telerabais for calls to UK (or anywhere else outside France - mostly charged at our local rate), and I use the basic Orange internet service "Decouverte" (2 mega, no Livebox or any other extras) at 21€ pm.

Our FT bill for the last 12 months was 274€, so with 12 months internet that's a total of 526€ or 43€ pm.

I prefer to have the internet and phone with the same compnay so there's none of that "it must be their line", "no, it must be their fault" issues if there's a breakdown. As it happens I've only had two breakdowns since 2004, one when a tractor demolished a telegraph pole (pole and wiring replaced next morning), and a short-circuit on the box outside the house (repaired FOC 2 days later, although it would probably have sooner if I'd been at home).

On the face of it it looks aso though I could save up to 10€ pm but I've heard so many tales about other companies that I'm very reluctant to try any other.

Edit: It depends how many international calls you make I think. We make quite a few but not an excessive number.

[pachapapa]

Yeah Sid; and is your cheap local call based on cheap VOIP transmission to a local portal in the UK?

Do you ever get snap, crackle and pop?

[Jay]

[quote user="pachapapa"]

Yeah Sid; and is your cheap local call based on cheap VOIP transmission to a local portal in the UK?

Do you ever get snap, crackle and pop?

[/quote]

Perhaps you could read a post, Sid has already said he uses www.telerabais.fr

[sid]

Yes, to emphasise what Jay pointed out, I don't use VOIP, just normal calls but via www.telerabais.fr

This set up works for us, but if you make a lot of international calls (or national ones for that matter!) you need to get the total cost of those and see if it would be cheaper to have an all-inclusive package.

 

[JeanS]

I have both landline and internet with France Telecom/Orange. I suspend the landline when in the UK - usually through the winter months. I've started using Skype to call my family in the UK - it's free.

[Jay]

Yes, we use Skype all the time, nice to see people as well as chat. Let's hope it continues to be free now that Microsoft have bought them out.

[pachapapa]

[quote user="sid"]

Yes, to emphasise what Jay pointed out, I don't use VOIP, just normal calls but via www.telerabais.fr

This set up works for us, but if you make a lot of international calls (or national ones for that matter!) you need to get the total cost of those and see if it would be cheaper to have an all-inclusive package.

 

[/quote]

No you and Jay wont but what about tele-ra-bais![:D]

Faut-il payer même si le numéro est "occupé" ?
Oui. Comme nous utilisons des numéros 08X vous payez dès que vous êtes connecté à notre ordinateur central. Essayez de convenir à l'avance avec votre correspondant du moment où vous allez l'appeler.

The 08x number will  direct all calls to the tele-ra-bais computer for voice over internet protocol transmission to the UK where another tele-ra-bais computer acting as a UK portal will distribute the calls at bulk contract rate. Now does that sound feasible or is it PPP burlesque.[;-)]

[Jay]

Fine, use their computer and their bandwidth, no problem.

[virginia.c]

So, today I find out that on paper I should not be able to use the Internet phone or broadband with any consistency as my 512kb is too slow. Ok, occasionally the phone cuts off mid sentence, but very rarely, and I can't remember losing internet access whilst using the computer at all. I am told that only FT/orange will provide t'internet to me because of my slow speed. Am also told that I can't have t'internet without a landline.

When I have girded my loins I will try to move to the next stage. Phew, it's hot here in 24 today.....

[Jay]

Have you tested your eligibility online? If not try http://www.degrouptest.com/

Sticky hot here in 16 as well.

[EmilyA]

We live here full time. Have an FT / Orange landline which costs us 32€ a month and internet at 26€. We then have Phonexpat for our phone calls. We only have a very flakey 512k which cuts off after anything between 5 and 30 minutes (we are at the limits for the exchange.) I can't think that internet phone would work, so have never tried. Am sure we are not getting best value for money, but no idea what would be better. We have no choice of provider here.