LATEST BROADBAND ADSL NEWS   -   PLEASE READ FIRST 

During the past two years there have been some significant technological and operational changes to the way your Telephone and Broadband ADSL is brought to you and managed.  I will try and explain these without being too technical.  First of all here in France we only have 4 Broadband providers compared with over 30 in the UK.  This means that there is very little price competition.  If you live in a major city or very large town, then additional equipment might have been installed in your local exchange, alongside the France Telecom apparatus by either SFR Neuf or Free Telecom, allowing you special lower price tariffs with these companies.  This is called ‘Dégroupage Total’ but is only available to about 20% of the population.  However, this is not the case for 80% of the population; so be very careful of operators offering cheap deals over the phone and Internet without explaining the details, which can adversely affect your telephone reliability and quality. For instance they do not explain that with these lower prices you will lose your France Telecom line and that your telephone calls are forced down the Broadband part of the line. This means that if you lose your Broadband you then do not have a telephone at all. In country areas, often due to the poor quality of the telephone line between your house and the local exchange, this system can also cause quality issues on the speech part of the line.   

Our packages, including Line Rental and Broadband ADSL from ourselves and our partner UKTelecom, whilst the line you rent is still owned by France Telecom, we manage everything for you at no extra cost.   The same terms and conditions apply as if you were a direct customer of France Telecom.  To explain: France Telecom outsources all local line work and repairs to local private companies.  All operators such as Orange, Free, SFR Neuf and ourselves have to use these same local companies; unfortunately these companies vary in their efficiency.   Nowadays one of France Telecom’s excuses for delays in repairs of landlines is that everyone has a mobile phone.  We do not agree with this statement. 

The Broadband market in France is very different to the UK. The principal reason for this is that there is very little money made by Broadband providers in France, apart from customers living in major cities downloading movies etc.  At present the ‘payback’ time in rural areas can be as long as 2 years.  All Broadband suppliers now insist that you have your telephone calls routed through them – for obvious reasons!   Our partner UKTelecom uses the SFR Neuf Network; however, we are only using the SFR Neuf Network – nothing else.  We provide the entire technical backup for you in English through a French Freephone 08 number.  Our Technical Support Service is able to test your line with the very latest equipment and report any failure to the relevant local company, thus adding to our efficiency.  We are confident that we are able to improve upon our already excellent level of Customer Service, which we feel is far superior to any of the French operators. 

Here is a more detailed explanation about Broadband ‘VoIP’ calls (Voice Over Internet Protocol).  Instead of using your normal telephone line to connect to your local exchange, calls can be routed digitally via the Broadband part of your line.  Imagine your telephone line as a dual carriageway, but the Broadband road as being much smaller than the main trunk road i.e. the main landline.  VoIP calls are very dependent on the quality of the cable between the socket in your house and the local exchange.  This system is not as reliable as your normal landline and if your Broadband fails then you will not be able to make or receive telephone calls.  All three of the major providers, Orange, Free and SFR Neuf supply these types of calls with no other line; this is why they are cheaper as they don’t have to pay France Telecom so much money.  With improved technology Broadband VoIP calls work well as in major cities and some large towns where SFR Neuf and Free have put their own equipment into the local exchange. Using the Broadband VoIP line for your calls should in principal work well and for some people it does. However, in rural areas this is often a different story and is very dependent on the noise figure and the size and length of cable of the line between your house and the local exchange and hence the quality.  All our Broadband packages come with 2 hours of FREE calls per month to 30 destinations. This then gives you 2 lines, which can be used at the same time, with two separate telephones, you then have a choice of packages to suit your individual needs. We will continue to offer both a Broadband VoIP line and a normal Telecom Network line. To summarise; yes, we are slightly more expensive than other operators, because not only are we providing you with a total English technical support, we are also providing packages retaining your France Telecom line, so that whatever system you have chosen, it gives you peace of mind, reliability, and a quality of call superior to Broadband VoIP calls and also a 2nd line. Added to this we supply you with the ability to watch FREE all your favourite UK TV programmes that you have missed by connecting to the BBC/ITV/CH4/CH5 TV IPlayers, which is not normally available in France.  

As you will now understand, this is why there are so many different packages and prices, which are dependent on your individual line and the equipment available in your local exchange.

Please fill in the following form and we will check your line without obligation and advise you on the best package.  

 Broadband ADSL Packages