icke

hi expats,

we will move from london to nice end of the year. since my job is done from home via the internet, i rely heavily on a stable and fast broadband connection.
can anyone out there tell me what providers are available in france and what the typical bandwidth is for adsl or cable (if available). right now, i'm kind of spoiled with a very fast (adsl2+) connection and would love to get something good in nice too.
also, what is the broadband availability in less populated areas? there shouldn't be a problem in nice, but is there any availability in smaller villages too???

thanks for any info,

cheers,
olaf

BarryM

There is no one answer for France - or even areas of France. here in the Vendee the area is pretty well covered, byt there are still cases or neighbours getting different speeds, and in one case I know one neighbour can't get an adsl servcie while his neighbour can!
If you know the current telephone number of a house you intend to buy you can check on many of the internet sites whether a solution is available there (eg http://www.dslvalley.com/).
Teleconnect have just launcehd an english broadband service in France so if your french isn't upto it try them - details on http://www.inthevendee.com/broadband/

chuba

I've been using Orange (formerly Wanadoo) for the last 6 years, very good service and availability nationwide as they are part of France Télécom.

I currently have a 8Mo ADSL connection (they go up to 20Mo) that never dies using a Livebox, the cost is around 29.99 Euros with Internet, Internet TV, and Telephone (add 3 Euros) all included.

Other operators such as Alice, Free, Club Internet, and others are available aswell, France is pretty much well covered in most regions with ADSL now so u shouldn't have a big problem finding a good operator or isp.

val50

We also use Orange, and have had no problems, good service here in Normandy, English speaking staff if we need help.

User34

There are www.neuf.fr , www.aliceadsl.fr é www.free.fr as well as www.orange.fr . they're are some others too. The maximum for any of these operators would be about 28Mbits. Nice shouldn't be a problem but some rural areas are stuck with orange and barely 1Mbit capacity.

Cable TV operator Noos/Numericable just launched a 100Mbit service, their standard service is 30Mbits.

In general a Triple Play package is about €30.

It can get complictaed in that you might have to have a France Telecom subscription before you can get internet with another supllier. Most of the other suppliers will push "degroupage Total", i.e. you don't need a France Telecom subscription anymore (but it's is possible you might first have to have it before you can do without it!)

personally, I cannot see why people stick with Orange/France Telecom they're the most expensive.