ADSL - non Degroupage - without preselection

[LePaul<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SP]

I am a very happy customer of TLK2 (also now an agent for them) and wouldnt change this for a pension.

My commune has recently had ADSL set up and I thought I'd be a happy camper. All I want is to get 2MB bandwidth to whizz my downloads and uploads through cybersville and be able to talk to my clients in Ireland and the UK while doing this. Simple.

Not on your life it isn't. I've searched AOL (God forgive me) Wanadoo, Tele2, Neuf, Alice and Cegetel. All will give me a lovely gizmo box and up to 20 MB with unlimited access but I must take their preselection system or worse still - I must take their FREE CALLS TO land lines in France arrangement.

I don't want this. I just want a bog standard ADSL connection without paying fortunes to have it. TELE2 will give it to me for 28,90€ per month. AOL want 39,90€ per month. Crazy.

Do any of you wise owls know of the type of arrangement I'm looking for anywhere in France. My ADSL service is non degroupage (I think this is the term)

Cheers all. Paul

[LesLauriers]

Free is 29.90€ and you do not have to have preselection, they do give you free calls inside France over VOIP and UK calls are .01ct more than tlk2, but your FT line is left alone as it works through a telephone socket in the back of the box.

[LePaul<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SP]

I saw this earlier. At 28,90€ then Tele2 creep in slightly lower. Still, I feel its not a great offer - even BT would beat this!!!!

[LesLauriers]

I make it 27.45€ after the first year - but with no free calls inside France, to me for 1.45€ a month extra it is a better deal to have the free calls and at the same time retain an independent FT line.

If you do use tele2 telephone service their Uk calls are, 1 st min at 17.9cts then 6cts - again a poor deal in comparison.

You are right about UK costs being lower for ADSL but that's just the way it is for now.

The headline pricing on internet and telephone service is designed to confuse the customer - and in most cases it will!

Free and TLK2 are the most straight forward (honest?) suppliers I have found.

[LePaul<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SP]

Leslauriers

Sorry - I missed the bit you mentioned about leaving your FT line alone. Do you have any more info for this or even a link to the page. I found the Free site a little confusing.

I did get an email from Alice (I use Tiscali at the moment on dial up) and they stated that I could get 2MB for 19,90 per month but when I spoke to them on their "HelpLine" (Mmmmmmmm) they didn't agree and ended the call. Way to go Customer Services.

Thanks for your input - Paul

[LesLauriers]

The Freebox plugs into the FT line via an ADSL filter, and on the back of the Freebox you have the following sockets:

USB - for direct Pc connection

Ethernet - for either direct PC connection or mutiple PC connection via an ethernet box.

Scart - for connection to your TV for TV services and/or for using your TV as a jukebox to play music or video stored on PC (Freeplay).

Telephone out - for connection to a telephone in order to utilise the free calls inside France or International calls (UK 3cts/min)

The FT socket then remains free for use either as a normal FT line or via preselection on TLK2 (as an example).

In my case I purchased a box from www.boxtoo.com and have the FT line and the Free line connected. This allows me to have 6 dect phones on the system and accept incoming calls from FT on any phone, when dialling out it automatically uses the Free line. You can also overide the system and select the FT line in preference to Free. I can also have a phone connected to any of the FT sockets in the house for use on the FT line only, useful for calling 1013 for example.

This link should take you to the instructions:

http://support.free.fr/maj/freebox_V3-V4_ppp.pdf

Checked out the Alice site - looks like they are now copying Free in terms of one offer one price. Very similar deal but their phone service to UK is plus 100% on cost per minute and with a connection charge at 12cts.