Free.fr ADSL versus the competition

[Holly1]

Hi all,

I'm about to take the broadband plunge. I'm tempted by free.fr since their package offers free international calls to UK and Ireland, whereas the other ISPs seem to offer free calls in France only. However, there seem to be alot of complaints about free.fr. I only know one person using them and he is very  happy with their service.

If you are a happy or an unhappy free.fr user in a zone non-degroupee please would you post any comments you have about them? Also I would be interested to know if you have kept your France Telecom line because I think in some cases this is optional (but I may have that wrong)

Neuf.fr seem to be popular too but don't have such good phone rates.

Any thoughts anyone please?

TIA

Holly1

http://la-plaine.chez-alice.fr/

(registration email address no longer works so please reply here or via the website)

[LesLauriers]

[quote user="Holly1"]

Hi all,

I'm about to take the broadband plunge. I'm tempted by free.fr since their package offers free international calls to UK and Ireland, whereas the other ISPs seem to offer free calls in France only. However, there seem to be alot of complaints about free.fr. I only know one person using them and he is very  happy with their service.

If you are a happy or an unhappy free.fr user in a zone non-degroupee please would you post any comments you have about them? Also I would be interested to know if you have kept your France Telecom line because I think in some cases this is optional (but I may have that wrong)

Neuf.fr seem to be popular too but don't have such good phone rates.

Any thoughts anyone please?

TIA

Holly1

http://la-plaine.chez-alice.fr/

(registration email address no longer works so please reply here or via the website)

[/quote]

Happy with Free was unhappy with Neuf and their billing system in that, whilst they agreed to overcharging, they would not refund. Still have FT line as we are non degroupage.

[BJSLIV]

French ADSL/Internet service standards are so bad that there is actually a meeting between the companies and the relevant government minister next week where they are going to be told to get their act together.

I think they are all capable of giving equally good or bad service, its just a matter of luck.

However the article in today's Figaro does say that Free were responsible for over half the complaints made by customers in the last twelve months.

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="BJSLIV"]

French ADSL/Internet service standards are so bad that there is actually a meeting between the companies and the relevant government minister next week where they are going to be told to get their act together.

I think they are all capable of giving equally good or bad service, its just a matter of luck.

However the article in today's Figaro does say that Free were responsible for over half the complaints made by customers in the last twelve months.

[/quote]

Yea, and I'll bet Neuf Telecom were responsible for the other half!

p

[Gyn_Paul]

From what I understand, the free calls with FREE are via a phone plugged into their Freebox. Not all phones are suitable, although the list on their website does say that this isn't exhaustive and other may work too. I have a neighbour who is just about to go this route (the Freebox is sitting in our local post office at the moment waiting to be collected) so I'll keep you posted as to his progress. I'm interested as I too am lured by the prospect of free international calls.

Watch this space !

p

[Ormx]

No complaints with Free, using for about a year (or over) now, delighted when they brought free calls to Ireland, haven't used other providers but heard a lot of billing problems with Neuf.

[Holly1]

Hi everyone, thanks for your comments. Sorry, I just said in another thread that there hadn't been any replies - I hadn't ticked the email notification box so hadn't seen that they were here! I am currently working my way through the various free.fr pdf terms and conditions documents on the website, but I think I'll probably go for it.  I hadn't found the one regarding which phones work with the freebox so I'll have a hunt for that. Also, please can anyone confirm that the phone and freebox work together even when the computer is switched off? Can anyone think of any questions I ought to have asked, but haven't? :-)

Thanks again, Holly

[LesLauriers]

The phone works when the computer is switched off, you have two lines FT & Free. You can buy a box from www.boxtoo.com which, inconjunction with a dect phone set up, will allow you to answer any incoming call on any phone but when you dial out you will automatically use the Free line, otherwise you will have two independent phone systems.

I use Logicom and Phillips phones without problem and also use a 1970's FT push button phone without issue, it looks like the ond two tone BT phones from that time.

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="Leslauriers"]The phone works when the computer is switched off, you have two lines FT & Free. You can buy a box from www.boxtoo.com which, inconjunction with a dect phone set up, will allow you to answer any incoming call on any phone but when you dial out you will automatically use the Free line, otherwise you will have two independent phone systems.

I use Logicom and Phillips phones without problem and also use a 1970's FT push button phone without issue, it looks like the ond two tone BT phones from that time.

[/quote]

Les, would you say any of your callers has noticed a difference in phone quality;  free v FT ?  My elderly mum in the UK who is profoundly deaf noticed when we changed to FREE as our provider (not ADSL, just ligne classique via FREE) we were much harder to understand. Perhaps FT offers a wider bandwidth?

Of course it could just be us shluring more with all the wine. I'm just wondering if the phone service multiplexed over the ADSL signal was better/worse/ no different.

This Boxtoo box sound like a good idea, I'll get one at the same time as the Freebox.

p

[LesLauriers]

Paul,

If by "line classique" you mean the preselection to "Free" of the FT line then as far as I am aware only the billing changes, it is still an FT line.

Regarding Free ADSL calls - yes sometimes, but not often, there is degradation of service, but I put this down to the problems I have experienced with the quality of the FT line - on dial up I would often get 9kbps, at best 33kbps, problems became so frequent that the FT engineer gave me his mobile number!  On upgrading to ISDN it was better but again there were problems. On ADSL my speed can vary dramaticaly throughout the day and very rarely the ADSL dies but comes back again, I am a fair distance from the exchange.

Overall I find the service from Free to be satisfactory and the inclusive local and international calls a real "win" however it is the all dependent upon the quality of the FT line which is out of Free's hands.

[Holly1]

Thanks Les for the boxtoo link, I'll have a look at that, and for the two lines explanation. I notice in the free.fr terms and conditions they say that they can't guarantee sufficient quality for fax transmission (and something else too but I can't remember what!) so they appear to know there is variable line quality.We will have to hope for the best there.

Now I'm wondering, if I order a freebox, when I should write to tiscali to give my two months notice. I have heard of delays with the freebox arriving and I don't want to be stuck on a PAYG rate for weeks. And even when the freebox arrives I somehow don't think it will just work as soon as it is plugged in, there always seem to be technical difficulties of some sort.

Thanks again

Holly

[victoria]

can anyone tell me does the free calls to the UK include mobile numbers?