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TELEPHONE AND INTERNET SERVICE


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We are currently with France Telecom and Orange Broadband but are looking for a service that provides both internet and also free calls to the UK, similar to Talk Talk in the UK. Does anyone know of such a service available here in France.

Many Thanks

Eniamor

 

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I have used the internet in france for 11 years and I cannot recall ANY FAI/ISP that offers the service you desire.

However ALL the FAIs with the singular exception of Orange offer in non degrouped areas Internet ADSL and free unlimited calls on fixed line to some 60 or so countries around the world. My own particular internet provider Alice also picks up the "tab" for the FT bi-monthly line rental which is awfully sporting of them.

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We have just moved from Orange/France telecom with whom we paid 16 euro a month line rental, plus 32.90 a month adsl including free calls in France plus call charges to the uk - on average 55 euro a month total. We are now with SFR and pay 34.90 a month total cost including line rental, free calls in France and to the Uk on land lines and other countries and including adsl/broadband 8 meg. See www.sfr.fr web site. The change over was easy and we were only off line 30 minutes and everything was sorted within 10 days.
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[quote user="ErnieY"]Think you're missing the point Richard, the OP is looking for Internet with free(ish) phone calls so paying £20 just for Skype doesn't really match that requirement too well [Www]

[/quote] Exactly "free(ish)". Do you find around £20 a year expensive then?

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[quote user="eniamor"]

We are currently with France Telecom and Orange Broadband but are looking for a service that provides both internet and also free calls to the UK, similar to Talk Talk in the UK. Does anyone know of such a service available here in France.

Many Thanks

Eniamor

[/quote]

As you already have Orange you might consider changing your subscription  and add a phone, this should cost you 29.89 Euros per month and include free calls in France. It may be 3 euros more per month if you are renting your Livebox but you are paying for that already.

For a further 7 Euros per month you can add 30 minutes of free calls to French mobiles but more importantly free, unlimited. international calls.

You wont have to pay any line rental to French Telecom either so your new bill will be just under 40 Euros all in. You can add French TV as well for another 10 Euros if you wish with films (in their native language) on demand for about 3 Euros each.

Several friends of mine and myself went down this route a few months back and all are very happy with the service . We have had no problems and everything was sorted out quickly. Orange and FT are one and the same so you don't have to muck around talking to two different parties and the service is very quick (one line problem in 8 years fixed in 24 hours - we just had adsl then). So all in all I am very happy with their service, it may be a couple of Euros more than some but well worth it.

One handy thing I read somewhere on this forum was that if the Livebox goes bang you can take it to your local Orange shop and swap it for a new one. Can be a lot easier and quicker than either waiting for an engineer to come out or to post it off and wait for a new one.

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We were on this deal with Orange and FT apart from the extra 7 euro for calls to the UK and mobiles but we still had to pay the line rental of 16 euro per month on top of the 32.90 (including livebox rental). Having been with Orange/FT for over 6 years and regularly checking their offers I have never seen where you did not pay the line rental.
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I would say that for convenience and potential reliability the Orange option has a lot of benefits. It may not be the cheapest but I agree with Quillan. Of course you will get horror stories about things going wrong with Orange, but the same applies to all the other providers. As FT and Orange are one and the same, there is less scope for shifting blame between line provider and internet provider. One big benefit of our FT/Orange set up is that we have the internet phone and the normal FT phone (not all providers do this) so if the internet does go down we still have a phone service; and we have, in effect, two lines, handy for faxes etc.
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Actually Richard it's £3.39/mth or approx €45/pa, and no, in itself that is not particularly expensive, however, considered in context when you've still got to pay for an Internet connection, typically €30, with which you can usually get an element of free calls and for a fairly nominal sum increase that to unlimited it ceases to be a simple cut and dried decision.

You also need to consider that to use Skype you need a computer PC permanently on or else shell out for a proper Skype telephone which can sometimes be plugged straight into the router, but then of course you're tied to having the phone co-located with it.

A raft of things then to take into account when making a decision [:)]

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I have to say we have been very very impressed with SFR and many people we know have changed to them in order to make savings on their communications. They handle the telephone termination with FT and you have to terminate your internet connection by letter once everything is up and running which again was easy. Our Neuf box arrived and we were without internet for 30 minutes while we set it up and voila away it went.

We never had any problems with Orange/FT it was purely a money thing and we have saved approx 20 euro a month - 240 euro a year.

Ofcourse we only have the one phone now plugged into the router and if the power went off we would be without land line but keep a mobile with a little money on just in case there is an emergency.

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[quote user="Will"]I would say that for convenience and potential reliability the Orange option has a lot of benefits. It may not be the cheapest but I agree with Quillan. Of course you will get horror stories about things going wrong with Orange, but the same applies to all the other providers. As FT and Orange are one and the same, there is less scope for shifting blame between line provider and internet provider. One big benefit of our FT/Orange set up is that we have the internet phone and the normal FT phone (not all providers do this) so if the internet does go down we still have a phone service; and we have, in effect, two lines, handy for faxes etc.[/quote]

Indeed. This is what we have. The fax, along with a phone is plugged into the livebox, so all outgoing faxes and calls are made via that, free, leaving the land line phone available for incoming calls. For international calls, we use phoneexpat service which offer us low cost calls to Australia.

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[quote user="Shane"]We were on this deal with Orange and FT apart from the extra 7 euro for calls to the UK and mobiles but we still had to pay the line rental of 16 euro per month on top of the 32.90 (including livebox rental). Having been with Orange/FT for over 6 years and regularly checking their offers I have never seen where you did not pay the line rental.[/quote]

If you look down the right hand side of the main Orange website page there is an advert for it and you can get it cheap for the first 3 months. You can also see it under the Boutique. You can change to it via Espace Client.

International calls are "Argentina, the Bahamas, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela. The countries d' Asia, of the Close relation and Middle-East and the Pacific are also proposed: Australia, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand. ".

Europe is included and also the USA and Canada excluding Alaska.

You can read more about it HERE .

I used o use Teleconnect for my phone calls and Orange (or Wanadoo when I joined) for my ISP. By going all inclusive I have saved on an average of 40 Euros a month.

Oh and 0800 numbers in the UK are free also if you go for the International option, I know because I have used them and have not been billed.

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The fact that Orange is still the largest ADSL provider indicates that millions of people are incapable of making cost/effective decisions. It is encouraging to note that Orange subscribers are moving in thousands per month so obviously younger more technically aware younger persons are making progress.

@ Shane: For some 5 years I have used a USB due to the power outages during the summer as a result of thunder storms; even a minimum mill-sec power cut and it will click in. The supply is normally directed to the PC and the CRT Monitor and gives me about 45 minutes before I lose access to my computer. But in effect I just shut the PC down conserving the battery capacity. If it is necessary to phone using the VOIP phone, I just connect one of the USB 230 AC 50/60 Hz outputs to my Alice LiveBox, wait for the LED sign on protocol to complete and the phone will then function. The phone will still be fully charged with the on board battery so connection to USB not required. 

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On topic:

I have used Free for 3 years with perfect service apart from a faulty powerpack for the box after a couple of years, rapidly replaced.

29,90 a month with free calls to 60 countries (fixed) and North America (mobile and fixed)

It also includes the only TV provision I need.

Before I had the FT line rental+ TPS satellite+ Internet (wanadoo at the time) so it represents a saving

 A bit 'off-topic' Orange/FT are like leeches to get away from and make every possible difficulty.

If you do decide to go for another option make certain that you follow their cancellation procedure to the letter.

I had an ongoing battle for over a year because I didn't use a 'lettre recommandée avec accuse de réception' so they denied having received it.

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Try HERE on the top right for 39,90 Euros, "Sans Abonnement Telephonique" and includes TV as well. They do keep changing their plans as I know several people who have it for 29,90 Euros with no TV and no FT line rental.

All ISP's are much the same and customers experience varies. I know people you have used some of the other companies mentioned and have had problems, look back through this part of the forum for example. I only know personally two people who have had problems, one with Teleconnect and the other with Free. In both cases they got caught in a ping pong situation between their ISP and FT as to where the fault actually was. Like wise I have seen people on here having Orange problems although mainly with customer service as opposed to technical problems. I have never had a problem with Orange and adding upgrades is done instantly over the net.

Orange/FT do look after their own customers first when there is a line problem. We all know it should not be this way but unfortunately it is. The person I know with the Free box had the ping pong scenario for about a week and then waited eight days further for FT to come and fix the problem. The problem was not with Free at all but with the phone line. They liked their Free box, it was slightly cheaper than Orange but they have changed to Orange because they could not be done with all the being pushed from pillar to post. When they lost their line during the gales a few weeks back FT were round in 36 hours, not bad considering all the other lines that were down.

I also us a UPS, cheap as chips, will only power a PC for about 10 minutes but with just the Livebox and phone connected it will work for several hours plus we have a mobile of course.

The only thing I can say is cheapest is not always best and you get what you pay for.

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[quote user="NormanH"]

 A bit 'off-topic' Orange/FT are like leeches to get away from and make every possible difficulty.
If you do decide to go for another option make certain that you follow their cancellation procedure to the letter.
I had an ongoing battle for over a year because I didn't use a 'lettre recommandée avec accuse de réception' so they denied having received it.
[/quote]

Come on Norm, you've been round the block a few times, you should know by now that the only sure way of cancelling anything in France is with 'lettre recommandée avec accuse de réception'. I have just told a friend of mine this who bought a fridge from LeClerc in Perpignan. It received considerable damage during delivery, they are taking their letter to the shop today to hand it in personally. I told them send it 'lettre recommandée avec accuse de réception'. I can see this dragging on for months (letter not found, are you sure you gave it to the right person etc, etc). They don't do simple in France unless its to sell you something.

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Shane,

Just to clarify...and the prices have not changed for quite a while

With Orange, it is 29.90 (plus extras) a month if you keep your FT line (FORMULE)

http://maboutique-internet.orange.fr/residentiel/TriplePlay.aspx?idnode=10

39.90 a month (plus extras) if you choose to give up the FT line (NET)

http://maboutique-internet.orange.fr/residentiel/Net.aspx?idnode=13 all calls by internet (free or otherwise) No more ordinary phone line

12 month subscription and don't forget the cost of the livebox rental and extra free voip calls if you want them.

Danny

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Have been with tele2 for about two years and have had no probs. 34.90€ per month includes all international calls all day every day, plus internet and (if we lived in the right area) TV. Don't pay for line, thats included. Very good. They have now been taken over by or have amalgamated with SFR.

Suey
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Like Norman I am with Free.fr, it is by far and away the cheapest offering (€29.99 with no line rental) with multi-channel TV, internet and free telephone calls to over 70 countries, for the OP the cost of calling a mobile in the UK is €19cts.

The freebox gives you wireless internet connection for up to 4 computers plus an ethernet connection, the TV is also wireless with a really good in built digital VCR.

I really dont understand why more people dont use it, lack of an English speaking helpline perhaps?

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