Barly

I know this is an eternal topic, and I'm sorry if it bores the old hands here, but then again, it's eternally changing, and threads from five years ago just didn't help me much. So:

We're moving to France, the address in Mulhouse (medium-sized city) seems to be dégroupé and fit for highspeed internet (THD).

1. Which broadband providers are reliable in terms of speed as promised and no or few outages? Or are they all the same?

2. Are there quality differences between the mobile phone networks in France? If so, which are reliable? (In urban Switzerland, I saw that in some concrete houses, you can get a Swisscom signal where Sunrise it dead.)

3. We need a landline (not used very much, but both for French and international calls; we'd be fine with using cheap predials every time if necessary), broadband, and a mobile. Television probably not. Are there any recommendations, separate or for deals, that make sense at the moment?

4. Less important: all other things equal, it would be nice to have calls redirected from the landline to the mobile for free - are there any such offers? (My blind guess is that probably yes, but the whole deal will be more expensive.)

dennerlymum

try free.fr: they are by far and away the cheapest at the mo for both mobile internet and TV packages...and heve the best customer service ;;; we changed from SFR to free for our phones and here in the outer boondicks the signal is a little weaker but in Toulouse is as strong, if not stronger than SFR

Have fun!

Barly

Thanks, I'll have a look.

(Forgot to say, I'm using my mobile mainly for incoming calls, and for rather limited internet, never exceeded my current 250MB.)

dennerlymum

Mobile costs 3€ a month with free for internet access
Internet plus landline plus tv = 29€ about plus the cost for a mobile account will be incorporated into this

all can be done (including severance of old contract) online at free.fr

Barly

I'm just trying to compare plans at ariase.com. Is Prixtel any good? They have a deal that might fit to what we need (20 or 25 Mbit/s is much more than I have now, and 1h (each?) included to French landlines, French mobiles and foreign landlines will do, depending on what it costs if we use more, just in case.) I'd take a mobile independently, then.

(The hard part for me is really finding about about quality and reliabilty.)

dennerlymum

No idea I am afraid

graham.miln

We have found free.fr reliable in Lyon. Costs about 37 euros for the television/landline/internet bundle including a basic mobile phone number. The bundle provides more than we need.

With free.fr you can redirect your landline to your mobile phone. There is a web interface for setting this up.

Tweedpipe

Check these links for FAI's.
Comparatif fourniseur access internet
Don't know how true the ratings are but Free come out well if you want to believe the star ratings. Click also on the 'Avis' tab.

Regarding the most reliable, I couldn't say, although we've been with Orange for years, never had any real problems. When required to update equipment etc we've found their customer support excellent. Had a problem 2 years ago with the original 'pretty old' livebox, which their specialist tested whilst I waited, confirmed it was defective and changed it.
FWIW I'm someone who refuses to carry a mobile phone, and will have nothing to do with one. Madame however has one, and gets hissed-off with occasional promotional messages - she couldn't answer or send an SMS if her life depended on it, & I admire her for that.......
In summary: pleased with their service, speed of lines etc.

dennerlymum

we have orange and although I have no real issues with them, we live in a small village and since last year our internet keeps dropping out...very annoying

Barly

Those who use Free with the Freebox - that's voice over IP, isn't it? Is the quality of the phone calls good? Some time ago, friends who had a VOIP phone provider complained that it was sometimes impossible to understand the other party and vv.

Chatter Static

All service providers offer some form of supplemental voip service, It can be secondary to traditional copper pair service or as your only form of telephone service although either way you get the copper pair or in some town optical connection.

Barly

But Free only use VOIP, don't they? Is the quality all right?

cyrian

I have SFR which is dégroupé - and has no dial tone i.e. VOIP only.
Initially, we found some problems with quality and non-connection but since then we have had no significant problems with it.
Also tv delivery depends on the internet speed obtained and again initially we were told that our line was too slow at 6Mb download to receive tv.
However, we can now receive tv at that speed.
I think that they increased the signal compression to allow tv at that speed.
I couldn't ask SFR etc online if I could receive tv but I used a neighbour's number which wasn't already attached to a service like SFR: Orange or Free and the online checker told me what services I could get.
I pay 32€ per month for free phonecalls; broadband and tv.

graham.miln

I use free.fr to call locally and abroad without quality problems; the quality feels no different to a traditional landline. There is a dial tone and no obvious indication it is VoIP. You can also use an SIP software phone or an existing DECT wireless phone with the provided box.

free.fr include a dedicated fax number which can be handy for avoiding potential line quality problems. Often fax machines show up problems with VoIP infrastructure.