Finally, Orange (France Telecom) offers unlimited calls to Europe - for 7 euros a month!

[JimJams]

If you already have Orange ADSL, you can now sign up for unlimited calls to the rest of Europe (plus 30 free minutes to mobiles in France) for 7 euros a month. You can cancel the contract whenever you want without paying a penalty. About time too! Glad I waited and didn't sign up with Neuf, Club-Internet, Alice or Free...

Go to http://www.orange.fr/bin/frame.cgi?u=http://nos-offres.orange.fr/om2a-gamme-tripleplay.html

Click on "A la carte", and the info is halfway down the page.

[Danny]

Jimjams,

I can only get 1MB service from Orange (don't know about other peoples lines) at 29.90 plus rental of modem/router, 3 euros and unlimited VOIP service for an extra 7 euros. That makes 39.90 a month with 12 month engagement (without 12 month engagement the total is 44.90)

With Free, for example, it is 2.4MB with all the above for 29.99 a month including modem/router and the VOIP calls with them go to more countries. With this in mind, I'm not sure why you are so against going with Orange's competitors.

Maybe there are other reasons? What am I missing?

I am curious...

Danny

[JimJams]

Hi Jane & Danny.

I can only get 1MB service from Orange (don't know about other peoples lines) at 29.99

I pay 24,95 a month

plus rental of modem/router, 3 euros

Better to buy a modem / router

and unlimited VOIP service for an extra 7 euros. That makes 39.99 a month with 12 month engagement (without 12 month engagement the total is 44.99)

For me, it makes 31.95 (my initial, 12-month contract has expired, which means I can cancel at any time)

With Free, for example, it is 2.4MB with all the above for 29.99 a month including modem/router and the VOIP calls with them go to more countries. With this in mind, I'm not sure why you are so against going with Orange's competitors. Maybe there are other reasons? What am I missing?

I always do my best to support the underdog - but ADSL is fairly new to France and I believe that at the moment one can get the best service from the people who operate the phone lines - FT / Orange. When I read the complaints about being without a connection for days or even weeks, I'm glad I'm with Orange: despite the storms and downed lines (I live in the middle of nowhere), I've been without ADLS for only 6 hours in the last 2.5 years. The FT engineers arrive within a couple of hours. Anyway, I'm glad you're happy with Free (I used them when I still had to dial in).

[BJSLIV]

Is this option available if you don't use a Livebox? Often the operators make it difficult or impossible to access their call options unless you use their own kit...

[Danny]

how do you get a 24.95 offer? is that just adsl or adsl plus the previous version of telephone illimite as well? I ask because I wasn't able to find that offer on the link you gave

Also, are you sure about the 7 euros offer? From what I understand, Orange already charges 10 euros extra (unless one has a 12 month contract) for their calls 'illimite' which is just to fixed lines in France. I assume that the new offer to other countries is on top of that.??? making 17 euros more than the competitors. Maybe I am missing something else! Also to use the VOIP calls you must use a Livebox.

EDIT bjsliv beat me to that point...

I have to say that I find Orange's charging structure extremely complicated - and not for any good reason either. There is no real reason why they have waited a long time to offer these services other than to keep their customers paying loads for as long as possible. People seem to have problems with all the Internet providers in France but at least with all the others the prices are pretty (but not totally) clear.

Ah well.

Danny
PS I am still with Club Internet and probably about to change to Free

 

[JimJams]

Hi again Jane & Danny.

how do you get a 24.95 offer?

Under "a la carte" on the Orange site

is that just adsl or adsl plus the previous version of telephone illimite as well?

Just ADSL (because the debit here is too small for TV)

Also, are you sure about the 7 euros offer?

Yes. It's very new (I checked just 4-5 days ago)

From what I understand, Orange already charges 10 euros extra (unless one has a 12 month contract) for their calls 'illimite' which is just to fixed lines in France.

This is something different. Follow the steps I described in my first mail.

I assume that the new offer to other countries is on top of that.???

I don't know. For me it's perfect: I don't make many calls to French numbers, but I make lots to the UK, Holland, Spain and Greece.

Also to use the VOIP calls you must use a Livebox.

Are you sure about that? I searched through this site and several people seem to be saying that a Netgear modem/router will handle it.

I have to say that I find Orange's charging structure extremely complicated - and not for any good reason either. There is no real reason why they have waited a long time to offer these services other than to keep their customers paying loads for as long as possible.

Exactly. Orange is a business. Free make a profit, too.

Anyway, here's what you get for your 7 euros.

Vers les fixes en Europe :

- Açores - Allemagne - Andorre - Autriche - Belgique - Danemark - Espagne et Canaries - Finlande

- Grèce - Guernesey - Irlande - Italie et Vatican - Jersey - Liechtenstein - Luxembourg - Madère

- Monaco - Norvège - Pays-Bas - Portugal - Royaume-Uni - Suède - Suisse

Vers les fixes et mobiles d'Amérique du Nord :

- Canada

- Etats-Unis (hors Hawaï et Alaska)

Vers les fixes des DOM :

- Martinique

- Guadeloupe

- Guyane

- Réunion

[Danny]

Hi jimjams

I am pretty sure that the 7 euros unlimited calls offer is on top of the 10 euro france unlimited calls and that if you want to do that you will have to pay the whole 17 euros extra... (not absolutely sure though)...

...but if you have not got a live box, it is definitely not possible to use the orange voip calls so this is slightly academic.

It is obvious that FT/orange is a business but my point is that the service and price offered by others is superior.. but of course if people want to give them the cash then so be it. Just as an example, I (and a lot of others) have been using the inclusive VOIP for calls worldwide for a year. This means we have had zero (whatsoever) call charges for a year. Orange are only just starting to offer this and its more expensive and it is not as comprehensive as the others.

in any case, happy surfing

Danny

[BJSLIV]

Having played around with the orange ordering site, It looks to me as though....

If you want any of their call inclusive packages you have to take the livebox, having paid for it I don't know if you must use it! Either way that's 3 Euros per month.

If you want to add the international package , you have to opt for their sans abonnment FT package and an 8mg connection.

So all that adds up to 49 Euros per month. Plus any firewall, or virus packages you want.

That still seems to be about 15 Euros more expensive than similar packages from Neuf, Free etc.

 

[JimJams]

Hi yet again Jane & Danny.

First, I hope you're wrong about " if you have not got a live box, it is definitely not possible to use the orange voip calls"! Anyone else out there have any ideas?

... am pretty sure that the 7 euros unlimited calls offer is on top of the 10 euro france unlimited calls

Agree

... and that if you want to do that you will have to pay the whole 17 euros extra...

Disagree (but then I'm an optimist!)

... my point is that the service and price offered by others is superior

Price, yes, but service? I'm not so sure. Many of my friends in this area have had a lot of problems with other ISPs.

... we have had zero (whatsoever) call charges for a year. Orange are only just starting to offer this and its more expensive and it is not as comprehensive as the others.

Agree. The trouble is, I work from home and must have an Internet connection every day. I was thinking of switching to Free ADSL (I like their setup and have had an account with them since the very beginning), but am worried about finding myself without ADSL for several days or weeks. Did your transfer to Free go well?

Greetings from a hot 82 - Jimjams

[JimJams]

(Am beginning to get a bit depressed now...)

Hello BJSLIV.

If you want any of their call inclusive packages you have to take the livebox

Where does it say that, please? Do you have a link?

If you want to add the international package , you have to opt for their sans abonnment FT package and an 8mg connection.

Ditto

- Jimjams

[Danny]

Hi

I am still with club internet as I mentioned earlier but hoping to go with Free soon.

I took the info about the livebox from the orange site

(3€ TTC/mois)(6)

votre passerelle multimédia indispensable pour accéder au téléphone illimité et à la TV numérique une connexion sans fil dans toutes les pièces de la maison possibilité de partager la connexion sur plusieurs postes It is the same with all the ISPs - if you want to use the inclusive VOIP calls then you must plug your phone into the 'box' Here, we have had no problems with Club internet  - adsl or the VOIP calls - for a year Danny

[BJSLIV]

Hi Jimjams

I suggest that you try to place a dummy order using the Orange website. You will find that the Option you are talking about is greyed out unless you take specific packages.

If it won't play with you because it recognises you as an existing customer try using a neighbours number......

[JimJams]

I'll call Orange on Monday and then post what I learn. (BTW there are quite a few Liveboxes for sale on eBay.fr)

[Danny]

Jimjams, don't get depressed, it is not worth it

having read carefully through all the offers on the Orange site, you have to take a 12 month contract - adsl and telephone, minimum 29.90 then hire (3 euros) or buy a livebox (cheapest in the supermarkets) then you can opt for the extra 7 euros deal. All in all, too expensive IMHO

time for a pastis in the evening sunshine

Danny

[Gemini_man]

JimJams,

for what it's worth I'm just going to add my 5 centimes -

I've been with Free for almost 2 years and most of the time I've had no problem at all. However, 2 or 3 times there have been periods of days or weeks of poor connection speed during peak hours and annoying disconnects but the longest I've ever been without a connection has been about an hour - never days or weeks. I have a neighbour over the road who is with Orange/Wanadoo and he also has disconnect problems from time to time. It seems to me that no matter which ISP you are with you are likely to have occasional problems and it seems the more remote you are the more frequent the problems are likely to be.

I pay 29,99€ per month for a 2.4 mega connection (includes the Freebox at no charge), oh and my France Telecom bill that I received today reads: consommations - 1,08€ + TVA - I can live with that! All my other calls were made via my Freebox which are free for all calls within France and to the UK plus all other EEC countries - the only other call charge I have is to mobiles via Freebox which are payble at 0,16€ per min at peak time and 0,05€ cheap rate for Orange and SFR.

Hope that helps.

[AnOther]

I'm getting ready to sign up with someone but I freely admit that with my pathetic French wading through the various ISP's web sites and options is fair making my head hurt.

I'm in a non degroupe area and looking at Degrouptest it seems I'm limited to ADSL 2+ @ a maximum of 2665kbps

[IMG]http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p123/biskitboyo/Degrouptest.jpg[/IMG]

For various reasons I must have as near 100% reliability and availability as possible from my phone line and living semi-remotely, and in an area of mediocre mobile coverage, until I've been in my house for a while I don't think I'm ready to go full VOIP from the outset.

It seems to be coming down to FT/Orange - Free.fr - or Teleconnect, this being the ultimate cop out simply because it is in English [:$]

To help me along I wonder if someone could answer a very simple question for me please :

Do the FT/Orange packages include the line rental.

[Danny]

Ernie,

"Do the FT/Orange packages include the line rental"

No

There is no problem in continuing to pay the FT line rental and still use the inclusive VOIP calls through the modem. Then, unless you want to call lots of mobiles or places like Mongolia, your actual call chrages will be zero. If your adsl is not working, then you can still use the phone normally. That is the best of both worlds at the moment. It just means paying FT 180 euros a year for the line rental...

Assuming all is else is equal (in terms of reliability) the best value for money at the moment is definitely Free.

regards

Danny

 

[AnOther]

Thanks Danny, I surmised as much but just wanted it confirmed, information overload I'm afraid.

I think I'll have to work up a little FT/Free/Teleconnect - Pros/Cons spreadsheet.............than blindfold myself and stick a pin in it...........[8-)]

[Gyn_Paul]

We are out in the sticks with a low download speed in a non-degroupe

area. we have had Free with the Freebox for about a year now, and have

lost the service exactly twice: once for about 2 hours when - judging

by the number of friends round here who also lost their service - we

think engineers were messing about with the cables; and once when my

hoovering OH pushed the armchair back onto the pillar and knocked the

FT plug/adapter/filter combination (clear evidence of a comittee

design, if ever there was one!) out of the socket. That one was worse,

we didn't find the cause for 4 hours!

I'm not at all suprised FT now offer free calls as part of a package to

other countries. I was cold-called a few months ago by FT's telesales

team trying to sell me ADSL packages. I explained I was quite happy

with Free as it allowed me free calls to both the UK and Canada. The FT

lady told me this wasn't possible and I was surely mistaken !!!, Indeed

she got quite shirty when I pointed out (after having been haranged for

some minutes) that I was the one with the Free account, was quite sure

what I had signed up to, and she was welcome to come and look at my FT

and Free bills if she cared to. If the sales team encountered very many

non-FT customers equally happy to stay clear of them, then it's hardly

suprising they've had a re-think !

p

[AnOther]

Just been re-reading the previous thread mostly about Free.fr

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1/880865/ShowPost.aspx#880865

it's all starting to come together for me now........I think [blink]

I know we are in France and when in Rome and all that, but I wonder how much extra business Free (or any of the other ISP's) might pick up if they published an English version of their site. Even a single page with the salient points or perhaps a downloadable document would go a long way to aiding understanding by non French speakers ?

This is after all the entire basis of Teleconnect's model and presumably they're picking up enough punters to put a baguette on the table.

[Danny]

[quote user="JimJams"]I'll call Orange on Monday and then post what I learn. (BTW there are quite a few Liveboxes for sale on eBay.fr)
[/quote]

Jimjams,

did you find out anymore?

Danny

[JimJams]

Hi Danny. No. I didn't call. I've decided to stick with Orange for the time being and continue to use Telerabais for my calls outside France. As I said, I can't risk being without ADSL (I need it for my work) and have more faith in FT when it comes to the crunch (of thunder and falling trees - quelle vie, quelle vie!): in seven years, I've spent just two half-days without a phone / Net connection. Free is 5 euros more expensive per month, and for 5 euros I can call for 6 hours all over Europe (in the evenings, that is) - and that's more than enough for me.

I hope, though, that Orange will see the light (at the bottom of their purse) and reduce their ADSL charges / increase their service offer. At the same time, I hope that their competition matures and the horror stories on various French forums (see e.g. today's "Free.fr ADSL" posting on this site) become a thing of the past - then I'll change to Free!

Greetings from a bit further south - Jimjams

(BTW you were right about having to sign up for Orange's unlimited-calls-in-France deal in order to use their unlimited-calls-to-Europe deal.)

[AnOther]

For better or worse I've decided to go with Teleconnect and sent off my application so I'll be enabled by the time I'm next down next month hopefully.

First signs are encouraging as I sent it all off by email just yesterday and have subsequently had a pleasant exchange of personal messages from customer services. 

Like I said earlier, ultimately it's a cop-out because of the English thing but my reasoning is that, initially at least, I'm only going to be in France for 3 weeks out of 5 whereas 'er indoors will be full time and if there are any problems she can hopefully sort them out herself.

Only time will tell [:)]