Phone & Broadband in France

[jamiebae]

Bonjour tout le monde!

We have a house in Normandy and need to get a phone and broadband Internet set up but I'm not sure where to start, should we just go to France Telecom?

Is there any way of checking if broadband is availible where we are? It's in a village called St Denis le Gast near Gavray in Manche (50) if that helps. What's the cheapest way to do it? We have a French bank account etc so that shouldn't be a problem I hope!

Merci!

[jamiebae]

Right, I've just done a bit of research and it seems that 30 Euros will get you broadband and a phone deal from a lot of companies but do you also have to pay phone line rental on top of this? My other problem is seeing if we can actually get broadband, the France Telecom site says we need to put our phone number in to see if it's availible but we don't have a phone number yet!

[Marcellus]

France Télécom/Orange has an English-speaking customer service helpline open Monday to Friday 09:00-17:00:

Calling from France - Tel: [phone]
Calling from outside France - Tel: [phone]

call them....quick and easy.....as for coverage I don't think there are many areas in France without Broadband

[Mello]

We recently got our France Telecom phone line installed, and we are out in the sticks. Once connected we used the broadband availability checker and we can get it fine, which I found quite suprising since we are over 2 miles from the nearest village.

You probably know it already, but the website to check (once you have a phone) is www.degrouptest.com although if you know a neighbours phone number you could try it with theirs?

Also, see www.totalfrance.com for loads of useful help via their forums...

[andyps]

Mello said:

We recently got our France Telecom phone line installed, and we are out in the sticks. Once connected we used the broadband availability checker and we can get it fine, which I found quite suprising since we are over 2 miles from the nearest village.

You probably know it already, but the website to check (once you have a phone) is www.degrouptest.com although if you know a neighbours phone number you could try it with theirs?

Also, see www.totalfrance.com for loads of useful help via their forums...

Just did the degrouptest on my line and whilst I can't quickly translate it all there are a lot of red "IMPOSSIBLE" boxes appearing!! The only one which is green saying oui is NRA compatible ReADSL FT - anyone know what this is?

Apparently someone nearby has been told he can't have broadband even though the Mairie which is literally separated from him by a wall has it - not sure how that can be, but it is France.

[jamiebae]

Mello said:

We recently got our France Telecom phone line installed, and we are out in the sticks. Once connected we used the broadband availability checker and we can get it fine, which I found quite suprising since we are over 2 miles from the nearest village.

You probably know it already, but the website to check (once you have a phone) is www.degrouptest.com although if you know a neighbours phone number you could try it with theirs?

Also, see www.totalfrance.com for loads of useful help via their forums...

Hmmm, the only things that don't say 'Impossible' next to them are these...

NRA compatible ADSL2+ FT : Oui
NRA compatible ReADSL FT : Oui

So what does that mean then? That was using the phone number of the hotel about a mile from our house in the same village.

[Marcellus]

Jamie - ring the english france telecom number.....in our experience by the time you're making yoru 1st coffee tomorrow you'll have a working phone line (assuming your house has phone sockets in the wall already) and whilstyou're on the phone they'll be able to confirm or deny whether you can get broadband....

[jamiebae]

Marcellus said:

Jamie - ring the english france telecom number.....in our experience by the time you're making yoru 1st coffee tomorrow you'll have a working phone line (assuming your house has phone sockets in the wall already) and whilstyou're on the phone they'll be able to confirm or deny whether you can get broadband....

Will do, I just need to remember the postcode of the house! We do have a phone socket in the house already, but it's not hooked up at the moment. I'll do a bit more digging and report back with results when I'm done.

[HuskerDu]

jamiebae said:

We recently got our France Telecom phone line installed, and we are out in the sticks.
NRA compatible ADSL2+ FT : Oui
NRA compatible ReADSL FT : Oui

ADSL2+ is an high speed DSL. Depending on your ISP (except France Telecom), it means you can have up to 28Mbps download for the same price

ReADSL is for long reach ADSL. Is only used if you are very far from DSLAM

Free.fr is a very good alternative provider. They are on the way to have their support pages available in english (http://www.free.fr/assistance/en/index.html ). In the 30€/month subscription you have included :
- up to 28Mbps connection
- unlimited calls to France fixed lines
- and unlimited calls to UK fixed lines (and using a free SIP software you can even use it from your PC in the UK)

Edited by HuskerDu on Tuesday 26th August 15:13

Edited by HuskerDu on Tuesday 26th August 15:13

Edited by HuskerDu on Tuesday 26th August 15:15

[jamiebae]

So would that suggest we can get broadband then? The france Telecom site said it wasn't availible at that number.

[HuskerDu]

I've understood that you don't have phone number. Without it, you cannot say if you can have broadband or not (zipcode is not sufficient in France for that purpose)

Try using the number of your nearest neighbour, or better, the old phone number of the previous owner.

[jamiebae]

HuskerDu said:

I've understood that you don't have phone number. Without it, you cannot say if you can have broadband or not (zipcode is not sufficient in France for that purpose)

Try using the number of your nearest neighbour, or better, the old phone number of the previous owner.

That is using the nearest neighbour's phone number I can

[Driller]

Another shout for Free here, cheaper and more options than FT.

[geordieexpat]

I use French telecom / Orange for internet and phone and Ive had no issues with them in nearly 2 yrs

Derrick

[lowdrag]

I use SFR. Unlimited ADSL and unlimited phone calls in Europe and the USA (including mobiles there) at around 50€ per month. On top of that you have the France Telecom line rental of about 20€ per month debited bimonthly. Used to be télé2 but they have recently been bought by SFR.

[jamiebae]

Well we still don't have a phone line at the moment, I'm going over there in a couple of weeks so will head over to the Mairie for a chat to see what is possible and what isn't. Checking emails over a GPRS connection on a mobile isn't fun!

[Mojocvh]

teleconnect.fr

[sider]

Are the plug-in mobile broadband dongles available in France? If so, what sort of monthly rental??

Plan for me is to move out there on a season by season basis at some point in the next few years - but in order to take my business with me, i need the mobile internet availability.

[Marcellus]

sider said:

Are the plug-in mobile broadband dongles available in France? If so, what sort of monthly rental??

Plan for me is to move out there on a season by season basis at some point in the next few years - but in order to take my business with me, i need the mobile internet availability.

yes they are...... from when I looked iirc €19 per month max 1gb!

[lowdrag]

Yup - SFR loaned me one when my ADSL went pear shaped for a week. If you think back to the days of the modem before braodband it words at that speed - in other words go to sllep between pages. It isn't worth the bother unless it is for text emails only. Any decent photo will jam it for an hour