My experience of getting broadband in France

ONE of the things that I say people must have when moving to France is a bucket load of patience, as you never know what might go wrong.

I have had to draw on that advice many times in the past few weeks following my arrival in the south of the Dordogne.

At first I thought I might find it difficult to secure accommodation over the summer months, but thanks to friends I always had a roof over my head and now have a cosy barn conversion for the next 12 months.

My real problem was getting ADSL broadband up and running, especially as I knew I would have to move house once or twice before finding a permanent stop.

I decided to go for France Telecom/Orange's Découverte Internet offer which provided one meg access, online television channels and didn't require me to sign up to a monthly contract.

The Découverte Internet service costs €24.90 a month, plus €3 for the rental of the LiveBox modem (you can save this small charge if you have your own compatible modem) and the regular €16 telephone line rental.

I needed to have a France Telecom telephone line so paid for a new number that would stay with me if I moved around the local area, this costs €55.

One thing I didn't realise was that this fee would be charged each time I moved, something that must have slipped past me in my translation of the terms and conditions.

But I could face that if I had broadband access, unfortunately that wasn't the case.

Again I expected there to be a period of time between notifying France Telecom of my change of address and the arrival of my telephone line and broadband access.

The telephone took a couple of days and I was assured that broadband took ten working days to arrive down the pipes.

Unfortunately, whilst the telephone arrived I ended up waiting for a little over six weeks for broadband to land, and really I am no closer to understanding why.

A couple of things I noticed whilst speaking to advisers on the English language telephone helpline from France Telecom is to make sure that the address for both your telephone line and internet access are one and the same.

You will receive separate bills for each and I think the staff face quite a number of on-screen steps when updating customer accounts so double-check that everything matches up.

A service that is a little hidden away within the Orange website once you have your username and password details is the suivi de commande service that features account details and estimated delivery times of the different features you've chosen.

To get to this page you need to log in to the Orange website, click on espace client, then mon compte internet, ma formule in the left hand column and from there you can check the progress of any orders.

The staff I spoke to on the English language helpline were able to answer questions and did their best to help out, I just got the feeling that the system they were working with was a real challenge.

I kept a note of dates when I called and the requests I made just so I could keep a track of things, but also made sure I called back when promised dates for the arrival of broadband to my house were missed.

And eventually I seemed to strike lucky and was told that my request would be accelerated, and it must have been given some extra gas as the green light on my LiveBox was glowing within 20 minutes signalling I was online.

Comments

[Pat]

Welcome back to the ether that is the internet.Keep up the good work.

[Richard Charman]

I have used four methods to gain internet access whilst staying at the Chateau of the Great Sun (http://www.chateauofthegreatsun.co.uk )

1) A 3G Vodaphone card which worked very well. 2) A BT Broadband Mobile dongle (useless - it struggled to open the internet and was far too slow to use - interestingly it was similarly useless on the Scilly Isles a few weeks later.)
3) My mobile phone - I use 02 - it worked ok, but not adequately to work.
4) Used the local internet cafe to access my personal emails - but would not do so for work.

Internet access really should be much simpler wherever one is.

[Bob Toovey]

Hey Craig, great you are back and in the cloud. France Telecom are really slow when it comes to making ADSL connections. Most ISP's quote up to 15 days to get enabled, they have to wait for FT. There does not seem to be anyway around it, their monopoly I guess.

Also, not helpful are the multiple costs and paper work. It seems like they really like to make you jump through hoops!

[Craig McGinty]

Hi all, it is good to be back up and running, just take ages to get through the back log!!!
All the best, Craig

[David Ash]

Orange came up trumps for me, the order was done quickly and arrived within three days. It worked immediately. Can't say that about UK Telecom, who I would never use again.

[annabel]

Against all advice from loads of people, we went with Neuf.fr we have had no trouble at all. 32€ a month, includes line , free calls to most countries. Even cancelled the rental for months when we were on hols. Nothing bu good fast service, I understand it is not always available in rural areas.

[Craig McGinty]

Hi all, thanks for passing on your own experiences of broadband in France. I am sure other readers find the comments useful.
All the best, Craig

[Clare]

Hi Craig,

Although not France Telecom, we are waiting for the satellite package to arrive from Nordnet.

I just hope it does what it says on the box, otherwise Rex is going to have my guts for garters!

Glad you are back on line. Have missed your mails and the site.

[janet]

interested in the idea of turning off broadband and only using it when there as have holiday home. (moving for good next year).
Does anyone have any info please?

[janet]

Moving to charente post code 16. Does anyone know of any motorbike clubs for british classic bikes.

[Liane]

Again, we use Neuf. You don't need the France Telecom line so you save on the 16€ per month on top of what Orange charge. We used Orange but found it very unreliable. Then went with Darty, again, not so reliable. Neuf very reliable, been with them a year now. The Wifi is excellent also, and this included in the price (unlike Orange).

[Catherine]

I have experienced real delays with France Telecom delivering the Livebox - 3 weeks in fact. The English helpline is fine when it is operational but I get the feeling they are just good customer service people with no control / insight into FT real service. After a nightmare getting the box sent back to them I won't be going back to FT in a hurry.

[Craig McGinty]

Hi all, many thanks for comments. Reading the wide range of experiences people have had, it makes you think that if a company could just provide a simple service, with clear solutions to problems they'd prove very popular!

And in answer to Janet, some suppliers offer a sans engagement service which doesn't tie you into a contract similar to the one I mention in the piece.

Whilst I thought it might prove useful for some the time it could take to connect and disconnect the service for your temporary needs means you might spend 10 days or so without any connection.

I would read the terms and conditions carefully if you were to go down this route.

All the best, Craig