ADSL - if you want a date

[Iceni]

I have had a bad morning and decided that now was the time to phone French companies - well if they shouted at me like the salesman in Carfour for being stupid English it could get no worse but I got some useful info. I tried 1014 and got the babbling French answerphone so I thought I would try a real person.

Our date for ADSL has moved on a regular basis for the last month and is now 'today' each day I check (Ariase) - this is the FT database. I phoned Ariase 02 99 36 30 54 and they gave me the FT official date of 6/10/05 (they have access to the 'real FT database') but assured me that is is naturel for the date to be one week off - BUT that should be the date, give or take a week. The conversation was conducted in Franglais but all the important stuff like phone number etc (which we have to know in French) was done in French.

I am slightly deaf so I was rather pleased that it is not 2009 and also that I coped.

Yes, I know we should all speak perfect French but having a problem that affects my ears (which means I could win a pig calling contest as I cannot always hear my own voice) it is a little difficult - but I am getting there. Sorry, what this diatribe is all about is that if you phone Ariase you may get a real idea when you are likely (or with reADSL locally not) to get broadband.

[Eslier]

Unsurprisingly your local Mairie is the best, and most reliable, source of information regarding the arrival of ADSL if it isn't already available.

If you are already a Wanadoo customer then you will almost certainly be contacted by them about a month before it is available by someone trying to sell you up to an "Extense" contract. Don't however be talked into accepting the 8Mo connection speed unless you download a lot of music or flms. 1Mo is more than adequate for all general use. On this forum you won't notice much difference from dial-up anyway as it goes so slow !

Remember that for the first six months or so after the installation of ADSL it is usual for it to be available only to Wanadoo customers. Other ISPs have to wait a while.

[Mandrau]

[quote]Unsurprisingly your local Mairie is the best, and most reliable, source of information regarding the arrival of ADSL if it isn't already available.If you are already a Wanadoo customer then you will a...[/quote]

I have had ADSL from wanadoo for almost a year now and although I can only use the slowest (512Kb) due to my distance from the exchange it is still 20 times faster than my old dial up. I have had very few problems with it but there is the occasional day when it goes off line and I have to reconnect but on the whole it is good. I suspect when I do have problems it is due to excessive use and they have not got the bandwidth to cope and also I guess as the traffic grows they are having to upgrade the gizmos that do the work.

PS my account is for 5Go which limit I have got close to twice!

The cost is virtually what I paid for dial up and using their spam filter and AVG free antivirus together with Spybot it is some months since I had a virus or any other problems.

[WJT]

[quote]I have had ADSL from wanadoo for almost a year now and although I can only use the slowest (512Kb) due to my distance from the exchange it is still 20 times faster than my old dial up. I have had very...[/quote]

Just out of interest Mandrau, can you give us an idea of what the monthly fee is?  We would like ADSL but don't know how feasable it would be because we are not there permanently at the moment.

[Iceni]

Surprisingly where we live, our line does not come from the local commune - the part of the commune that has their own exchange is all ADSL and has been for the last year - so no interest there - some others are so far from another 'communicator' that they will only get reADSL if and when it is rolled out - in the same town of only 500 - 600 souls.  We are 2 km away and get our phone line from a totally different area which is seemingly a very small commune and which apart from this has nothing to do with us at all.

In our hamlet of 8 houses it seems that even the electricity may come from two distinct areas - wires come in from two directions - ours only carries 6 KW max.

I will give it a week and if nothing happens I will take a drive to the area where the 'communicator' is supposed to be going in to see if I can get any info.

The more we find out about where our utilites come from the more we marvel as the commune we live in seems to oversee the supply of none of them. They might cover the wells high in the hills that hold our water but I very much doubt it (and very nasty it now tastes as the ground water lowers and the chemicals concentrate).

Ariasse do have access to the latest daily FT work sheets so it is always worth a free call to them - which I will do again next week if we get no joy - they did say a minimum of 7 days delay was normal - ho hum, I did decide to live in the back of beyond.

[Mandrau]

[quote]Just out of interest Mandrau, can you give us an idea of what the monthly fee is? We would like ADSL but don't know how feasable it would be because we are not there permanently at the moment.[/quote]

ADSL from Wanadoo costs me 19.9 euros a month for "Extense 512K 5Go" which I think compares well with UK prices, I also pay an extra 1.5euros a month for their "Anti Spam plus" prices do include tax (for once)

Hope this is of some use to you

[Juswundrin]

Hi

Just to say the 5Go tarif isn't currently available, unfortunately. The 512k unlimited usage is 24.90/month (after 3 months at 19.90).

This may not make you feel any better Di, but we connected to ADSL yesterday after a year of Tiscali 56k (yeah, right!) dialup, and it's just an absolute joy - worth waiting for!