Internet in French holiday flat
 

Hi I have picked up lots of info from you guys already - just one missing piece would be helpful. We let our flat for six weeks every summer so will go for the switch off/on option. Our agent has offered two options - une box a petit prix or un Domino (routeur Orange with Sim card). Which option would mean the tenants paid their own phone bills? Thanks in advance

Re: Internet in French holiday flat
 

My answer would be neither.

How are tenants going to top up your wireless service on the sim card? Letting the tenants change the sim card opens up all sorts of issues and once all the purchased bandwidth is used no more internet.

You could get a haut debit put in which has Voip and free calls to landlines within Europe, America etc you get the pair of wires from the exchange but dont have to pay line rental for them like you do in the UK. That way renters could have access to wifi. Personally I wouldn't let them anywhere near a phone but a wifi access point is ok.

Re: Internet in French holiday flat
 

I stayed in a holiday cottage in Ireland a few years back that had this system - a mifi device with a sim card in it, and instructions for the guests on how to top it up. I took their sim out and put my own in :lol:

I would have thought that these days, most guests are going to have their own devices for connecting to the internet. They would like free wifi but if you don't provide it for free I suspect they will use their own devices rather than top yours up. You could perhaps mention in your literature that there is no free wifi but you have a mifi device with sim card available for loan. But I'm not sure it really counts as "providing wifi" when it's DIY and PAYG.

OTOH if you have a router that provides unlimited internet access, asking guests to pay towards it would seem a bit, well, odd. If you go that route surely it would be better to advertise free wifi and charge a rental fee that includes it.

I don't think anyone expects a landline these days do they? Can't remember the last time I saw a telephone in a gite. People have mobiles, what they want is free wifi.

Re: Internet in French holiday flat
 

Proper wifi is a clincher for folks with kids these days Minecraft "cough" Youtube "Cough Cough" Mifi units are not up to these kind of tasks bandwidth wise.

I know the internet is new fangled for some folk but a lot of people treat it like electricity and running water these days.

Re: Internet in French holiday flat
 

+1
Even leaving the fb addicts out of the equation, wifi is particularly useful on holiday for checking out tourist info - what's on, opening times, how to get there, phone numbers, stuff like that. It's good to be able to all that in the evening, rather than wait until the tourist info office opens next day.

Re: Internet in French holiday flat
 

Thank you - I agree about the phone - hence my query - would the box a petit prix (whatever that is) be the answer?

Re: Internet in French holiday flat
 

We holiday in Europe every year and typically stay in 2 or 3 gites/agritourismos each trip. While we don't care about a phone, as we have our own, included internet access in an absolute must. Whether accessing email, planning next day day trips, face timing with family back in Canada, staying current on the worlds news or even paying bills that come due back home, expecting to get by without internet these days isn't possible. The number one criteria when we are booking a place is that it has internet. If it doesn't we look elsewhere.

Re: Internet in French holiday flat
 

Do you have a link to whatever provider that is with? and is the flat in a zone degroupage. Not every telephone exchange "NRA" can supply service from other providers sometimes Orange is the only option.

Click THIS LINK and stick the nearest landline number in or the address of the property to find out your best options.

Re: Internet in French holiday flat
 

I thought Orange was the only one to offer a "switch off/on option"?
If the flat is empty most of the year, the OP won't want to pay for year-round adsl.
But I could have got the wrong end of the stick.

Re: Internet in French holiday flat
 

I was under the impression that was for landlines and not Haut Debit......

Re: Internet in French holiday flat
 

Thanks to all for their comments/advice. Going over soon so will have long talk with agent bearing all you have said in mind.

Re: Internet in French holiday flat
 

There are a number of factors to consider of course but as a technology 4G based MiFi is theoretically capable of speeds of 150mb and 4G LTE 300mb, in the real world that means 20mb or 40mb neither of which are too shabby !

Trouble is in France decent 4G coverage is woefully thin on the ground :(

Re: Internet in French holiday flat
 

Understatement, rollout here is slow because wireless services are now out performing wired the push to fibre will mean a radical rethink outside of towns and prove that all the NRA-ZO's that have been installed are already redundant.