Orange ADSL - 1Mb or 8Mb?

[David]

My French neighbours have now bitten the bullet and are going to install their first internet connection.  They have contacted France Telecom and they have been offered two livebox packages, one of 1Mb for about 30 euros, and an 8Mb for about 35 euros per month.

They are near the end of a long overland telephone line (I am at the end of the line), the connection will be for family use only, not business, and they have three children.  They know little or nothing about computers or the internet.  Also they will only consider France Telecom.

When I installed my livebox about one year ago I was recommended to go for 1Mb as that was said to work better than 8Mb on long overland lines.  However, the neighbours say that France Telecom advise that improvements have been made, and their telephone number will work well with 8Mb.

The family have asked for my advice, and I wonder if anybody can help me with my advice as I am not a computer expert.

Many thanks.

David

[BJSLIV]

Try your number or this in this page and see what it says is available.

http://www.dslvalley.com/

You could post the line details on here (without the phone number!)  and someone will tell you what speed is likely to work. The important things are the distance from the exchange and the quality of the line.

 

 

 

[David]

Many thanks for that.  I have copied the details, but I dont really understand them.

Do I have between 6 & 8 Mbps, or 16 & 18 Mbps?

My neighbours are on the same line, but their line is about 500 metres shorter.

Thanks,

David

Numéro de téléphone :

Code NRA : SAP79

NRA (commutateur local) : SAINT AUBIN DU PLAIN

Distance vous séparant du central : 2470 m (détails)

Taux d'atténuation : 25.44 dB

Débit ADSL (estimation) : Entre 6 Mbps et 8 Mbps

Débit ADSL2+ (estimation, si disponible) : Entre 16 Mbps et 18 Mbps

Nombre de lignes téléphoniques : 1 000

Type de DSLAM : ECI

Edit - the line details were "Cable 1, Calibre 06, Longeur 02470 m".

[BJSLIV]

Its worth registering for 8 meg, it might not achieve the full speed, but would probably settle down at something like 6 Meg.

[David]

Many thanks for that, and also your very helpful replies.

David

Edit - for a family computer, is there really much difference between a 1 Mb connection and a 6 to 8 Mb connection?  I ask this as my 1 Mb connection seems to work very well and I have no complaints.  This has started me wondering if I should upgrade to a 6 to 8 Mb connection.

[Pierre ZFP]

Lots of interesting info here.  There's good news and bad news.  Good news: 2470 m is not a great distance, ADSL will work happily up to about 5km.  You almost certainly don't have ADSL2+ yet as its being rolled out in the more densely populated areas first.  When you do get it you may be able to whizz along at the giddy speeds of 18 Mbps.  The bad news is that 1000 telephone lines is quite high and you could suffer from contention problems (ie an apparent slow connection) at times.  I don't see why you shouldn't get the full 8Mbps these data - far better than 1Meg and only 5 euros more - go for it!

edit - yeah 8 meg is soooo much better than 1 meg especially if downloading music or vids