Re: What is the best internet deal ?

[Maricopa]

Personally I use Neuf, have done for 16 months and am very happy.  Others will have their own thoughts[Www]

[Maricopa]

I think it is.  I pay 69€ every TWO  months and that is all my calls all over Europe and north America, as well as unlimited broadband.  The only extra cost is calls to mobiles, which I use my mobile for, also useful if you should lose the line for any reason.  I am full dégroupée, so don't pay anything to FT and don't have an FT line.  I am fortunate that I am close to the local exchange, which can have a siginficant effect on the service.

[Junlesley]

The only downside to not having a propper landline 'French Telecom' is that if your electricity or internet goes off you have no way of using the telephone.

[Maricopa]

[quote user="Junlesley"]The only downside to not having a propper landline 'French Telecom' is that if your electricity or internet goes off you have no way of using the telephone.[/quote]

Hence my comment about my mobile[Www]

[Danny]

Puzzled

if you really want to save money, the cheapest is Free.fr 29.99 euros all in, even in a zone non degroupée. Next cheapest is Neuf, Alice at 29.90( 34.90) in a zone non degroupee.

Next is the other ISPs for which you have to keep the FT line like Teleconnect.

Then Orange

BUT....The devil is in the detail...

With Free, Neuf and Alice and even Orange, you can go ADSL nu. That means no telephone line rental and you only pay one amount for adsl and phone calls(mostly free of charges). Downside is you have no real telephone line anymore and you have to depend on a mobile if you want to stay in contact in the event of a failure in the modem or ADSL. It always seems like a good idea until you do have a problem then it seems like the worst idea when you are being charged on a mobile to call up to say that the service is crap and they put you on hold again and transfer you and then you have to explain it all again.

Personally, I have been with Alice for quite while and have been very happy. I kept the FT line too. (I had 2 weeks when the adsl went down in the past, so I want to keep the phone line) Monthly costs work out about 35 euros + 16 to FT 51 in total. No real call charges expect for calls to a mobile once in a while. I got 3 months free initially so that was a saving of 105 euros.

If you want cheap, go for Free. If you want a little more insurance stay with Orange/FT or go with Alice and keep the FT line. With Orange you now get TV by Satellite thrown in as well if you can't get it by ADSL.

The more you look in to it, it is difficult to answer "What is the best internet deal" . Neuf (now SFR) for example is very good for the money but only if you choose not to have the FT line. Otherwise they don't give you free VOIP calls internationally like Alice and Free do even if you keep the FT line.

Go to www.degrouptest.com, enter your phone number and see what offers are available, do some reading and make your choice - make sure you understand all the details as they are notorious for ever so slightly misleading offers. ie Orange TV, also available in zone non degroupée - up to 60 channels available, then in small print 'for adsl TV customers only' (i.e not in a zone non degroupée) They only get 20 but that is not explicitly written

Good luck

Danny

[Pickles]

Another alternative if you are in a city is cable/fibre optic broadband - eg Numericable/Noos at around 22€/month for the broadband alone (you can then sort out your own VOIP offering) and no need for a telephone line. We've used Numericable for several years: the reliability is better although it had some atrocious periods earlier on, when after taking over the network from FT Modulocable, they discovered that FT had basically not maintained the system in the years leading up to its adoption of ADSL. It does the job for us, but I would check up on the sites where people complain about their broadband suppliers to see what the level of recent complaints is. However, it is not available in most rural areas.

regards

Pickles