Anybody using Nordnet satellite broadband and phone?

[Harnser]

 

We are interested in having Nordnet satellite broadband installed

Our reason for considering sat. broadband is that our orange broadband, mobile phones and land line phone all went down for days after storm Cieran - totally out of touch for days.

We cannot have Starlink - too many trees around us.

We have reliable, good quality generator power available when EDF power goes down so it makes sense to consider a satellite broadband and phone connection.

We note from https://assistance.nordnet.com/ etc that we are eligable for assistance "as part of the Digital Cohesion of Territories" system, it says we can benefit from the satellite kit for 0€. This presumably is as a result of being in a "white" area where fibre will either not happen or not for a long time.

Does anybody have experience of using Nordnet please?

 

https://newsroom.orange.com/orange-lance-son-offre-satellite/

[cajal]

All I know about sat. broadband is that the quality of the signal is dependent on a clear and unobstructed signal to the dish and how many transponders the satellite is carrying. Satellites on a low earth orbit tend to have fewer transponders than those orbiting geostationary, which means they are at a fixed distance from the equator and able to follow the earth's rotational speed.

Perhaps it will assist your decision if you are able to ascertain which category of orbit, your chosen supplier satellite adopts.

[Harnser]

The satellite used by Nordnet is Eutelsat Konnect VHTS launched last year.

https://reseaux.orange.fr/nos-reseaux/internet-fixe/internet-par-satellite-nordnet

I'm not too worried about which satellite in what orbit - it's the user experience I'm looking for.

[Harnser]

5 hours ago, Harnser said:

The satellite used by Nordnet is Eutelsat Konnect VHTS launched last year.

https://reseaux.orange.fr/nos-reseaux/internet-fixe/internet-par-satellite-nordnet

I'm not too worried about which satellite in what orbit - it's the user experience I'm looking for.

Further investigation reveals that previous user experience of Nordnet is not valid as this service is a new Orange/Nordnet service launched yesterday 16/11/23 using the new satellite.

If it works it seems like a good deal.

>A very high speed connection

Surf and watch videos at very high speed at home with Wifi 6 and a connection of up to 200 Mbit/s ↓ and 15 Mbit/s ↑ .

>Landline telephony

Keep your existing land line phone number and make unlimited calls to landlines in mainland France and 50 other destinations, and unlimited calls to mobiles in mainland France and 8 other destinations.

>A Satellite Kit

The Satellite Kit is supported by the State if you are eligible for the subsidy (€299 otherwise). Don't have time to install it yourself? Nordnet offers an optional installation service.

"if you are eligible for the subsidy" which we seem to be as we are in a "white" area where fibre is unlikely to be installed if at all.

Might give it a whirl.

 

[Martin963]

Of  course if it's genuinely a new and better service from a new satellite then it might be worth trying.    But over the years of reading nordnet reviews I'd be very careful about using them,   I don't know if it's still the case but for ages there was a clear pattern that new customers got an excellent service for the first three months (which was the period where you could wriggle out) and then the speeds would collapse,   leaving you locked into a contract that had another 21 months to run.

 

Is the internet really that important?   Are storms on this scale going to happen so frequently that your life is going to be constantly and completely disrupted?

 

I must admit that *some* backup is comforting,   here in Devon we have a couple of 4G routers,   and when the fibre to our village was cut off by a lorry (that was too high and which stripped the fibre from the poles) we were glad to have an alternative,  as it took BT nearly two weeks to repair things (not their fault,   the road had to be closed and it's an A road).   

A 4G (or 5G) router is far more reliable than tethering to a phone,   although of course if the base station is deprived of power it's not going to function.   

 

[Harnser]

Firstly Martin, rural France isn't Devon - the power lines and the phone lines are all on poles around here, falling trees take them both out in a storm, lack of mains power then takes the phone masts out.

And then you sit there incommunicado for 2-3 days, it's true that our generator lets us keep the lights, sat TV and a modest tranche of electrical appliances working but we do need access to email etc as to pay bills we are now on email card transaction  authorisation since our SFR phones went out 2 weeks before the storm.

I've looked at Starlink very critically and there is uncertainty about the level of tree obstructions it will cope with, granted it's a very clever system but our situation is we have a lot of very tall trees mostly all around our immediate horizon, and ASFAIK there is not a phone deal possible with Starlink.

With mains power from our generator we had a satellite TV connection during and after the storm when nothing else was working, that's the incentive to looking at the Orange/Nordnet proposal for broadband and phone particularly as:-

"Keep your existing land line phone number and make unlimited calls to landlines in mainland France and 50 other destinations, and unlimited calls to mobiles in mainland France and 8 other destinations"

I've also looked up the dish pointing direction and elevation for the Eutelsat Konnect VHTS satellite and we have a clear line of sight from the gable end of our house to the satellite.

And as this new offer is backed by the French state there is a good chance it will be better than the old system.

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by Harnser

[Martin963]

Mon cher Harnser,   it's clear you don't know this bit of Devon (and a large surrounding area).    EVERYTHING is on poles here too,  in fact more so than in 24 where we had our house for twenty years,    during which time EDF/Enedis buried most of the local 3 phase distribution - none of our low tension stuff is buried.    We too have falling trees and outages,    and lorries that take out the phone lines/fibre connection,   although my generator admittedly has been put to one side in the last two years as we now have a Tesla house-battery,   but I am indeed aware of the sort of problems you face,   as we face them here too.    And no 5G before you ask,   France is miles ahead with 5G coverage.

 

Like you I would find financial operations difficult after perhaps two weeks,   but a few days?    I'm not familiar with email card transaction,    but our basic bills would still be paid internet or no internet.    I can see though that if your mobile signal went down 2 weeks before the storm then it did make life extremely difficult,   was this weather related or just the most appalling concatenation of technical failure?

 

We had a lot of trees round us in 24,  and indeed do here in Devon.    The main problem though is finding a path for the satellite signals to come through,   particularly as I need the arc from 28E through to 5W.

 

Like you I don't know how well Starlink performs with obstructions,   friends near here have it as they don't have the same fibre connection that most of us have,   and I know that they were muttering that they needed to find a better position for the dish as the house was partially obstructing their signal.   That said they were getting speeds of 70 Mbps by just plonking their Starlink dish on the ground.    And here in Britain it's £75 a month,    whereas in France you can I believe get it for €49.    How can they justify such a difference?

 

I'll try and find out how our friends are getting on and what sort of installation they have.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by Martin963

[Harnser]

Mobile signal from SFR has been a problem here since mid-October despite complaints - not just us, our local bar tabac in the town also has the same lack of signal with his bank card machine.

OH's Leclerc/Reglo/SFR mobile payg account has about €25 on it so she will run that out and change to Free which has 5G.

Our copper land line broadband connection, whilst adequate under normal circumstances sans tempete, will not go to fibre anytime soon or ever, as there are not enough potential subscribers out here in the woods to warrant their investment in fibre so the service will never improve and may deteriorate due to lack of maintenance.

Starlink's monthly fee is the same as the orange/nordnet but for us the Orange/Nordnet hardware is zero cost in a white zone but we would have to pay for installation and setup- no setup fee needed for Starlink.

Orange/Nordnet comes with the free phone call deal - starlink doesn't AFAIK.

Not generally known is that Starlink is technically illegal in France - typical Elon Musk!

https://www.presse-citron.net/pourquoi-starlink-risque-detre-interdit-en-france/

So still thinking about it all !

 

[Harnser]

More on Starlink's status with the French government.

https://ts2.space/en/starlinks-regulations-and-the-french-authorities/#gsc.tab=0

[Martin963]

Yes,  I can see it's a casse-tête for you.   As I say,  I'd just be very wary of anything with the Nordnet name in it,   of course they may have turned over a new leaf,   but.....

When we were in 24 we had the same problem as you,  ie our village was not scheduled for fibre (as far as I know they still haven't got it).     Hence we went down the 4G mains-router boulevard (in fact we pioneered it locally,   and by the time we left I'd advised/installed it in a dozen French foyers (some friends,   some via word of mouth from friends to their friends I'd never met!).   We found the SOSH offres quite good enough (as they ride on Orange's network the coverage was the best overall) but we also used SFR which in our case had a weaker signal but greater allowance.    For €20 odd and only monthly contract it worked very well in a dedicated 4G mains router.

I'm no particular fan of Musk,    but I wish him well in this particular instance. as anyone who throws sand at the French and the EU regulations gets my support.