Bonjour,

I apologise for writing this in english. My french is no where near as good as many of your english is.

 

I need some advice. My parents live in France and currently have an old desktop PC with a painfully slow dial up internet connection. I have just bought them a laptop and said I would ask the Beoworld french forum who they would recommend as a broadband service provider. I've tried to do some research but am having trouble.

They live in an old village in Charante Maritime postcode 17600. Non of their french friends seem to have broadband!

Who do you use or recommend?

Many thanks,

Steve

Bonsoir, Can you PM me the fix phone number of your parents to see what kind of contract they can afford to (the post code 17600 is for many cities...), i will not call them personally, i promise

My provider is Free (www.free.fr) for many years and i really enjoy it.

Don't hesitate to PM, i will try to find you the best provider...

Best regards.

Jérôme. 

Hello Steve,

The broadband (ADSL) providers for your parents’ village can be found at

http://www.degrouptest.com/

(typing their fixed phone number and their postal code).

I live in the middle of the country and the choice of providers is not very extensive.

I personally use orange.fr and with only 622,4 Kbit/s it works fine!

Marc

Just note that www.degrouptest.com doesn't show the information for Free anymore, you have to try at www.free.fr for this provider (the best if you can have the full service with them : TV/Phone/Internet). In fact for me there are two solutions : you are in a place where free has "dégroupé" (I don't know the word in english, please someone, help me!!) the DSLAM, so just sign for free, otherwise sign for Orange (the historical operator : expensive but the best solution in secluded places...) 

Hi Jérôme & Marc,

Jérôme, I have contacted you via PM (hoping it works - I have many problems with PM's on here).

Marc, I have done degrouptest & would love your opinion on the results:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/Stevenkuzzy/fradsl1.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/Stevenkuzzy/fradsl2.jpg

Many thanks to both.

Steve

Free is the best french internet provider, but is not listed in degrouptest. Just try the first steps in www.free.fr to see what you can get with them too. Sadly, it seems that from the degrouptest results your parents can not get a "degroupage" (if someone know the word in english, correct me), so in that case the only correct provider is Orange.

To sum up : if you can be in "degroupage" and not too far from the DSLAM : Free
Otherwise : Orange

Thankyou mbee, I'll look into Orange.

Appreciated,

Steve

Hi Steve,

Just PM you.

 Mbee is right in his choice.

Jérôme
 

I think too Mbee and   Jérôme are right; as it seems that there is not « dégroupage » in your parents’ village

(“dégroupage” means that you don’t pay any more for the monthly subscription for the telephone line to France Télécom / Orange which belong then to private providers ), the choice of Orange is the good one.

To see the Orange tariffs try this link entering telephone number and department (17 in your case  ).

Best regards and good holidays in France (the weather will be very sunny this week-end!   )

Marc 

 

I always advise Orange as the way to go for people not in the know with PCs.

Why?

- Because Orange service & reliability is really one of the very best (Orange is actually the Internet provider subsidiary of our national France Telecom phone company)

- you have Orange/France Telecom agencies almost everywhere, (should you have a problem with your DSL connection or whatsoever) : in case of technical issues, a technician can be sent to fix the issue (on the contrary of other providers that do not have tech teams on the field).

- and the Wi-fi modem installation by Orange at one's home is generally free through their subscription offers.

Free is nowhere near this quality of service, since they are only reachable by phone. It means that when you have a problem, you'll only be able to deal with someone on the phone : I assume if your parents' French is not perfect, they'll have some difficulties to overcome their DSL issues, should they have some (keep in mind that tele-operators on the phone are actually located in Africa, and it is quite difficult sometimes to understand their French, even for French native people... Imagine how harsh it will be for a foreigner...)

Philippe

Correct Philippe, for someone who is not familiar with PC, Orange is the way to go... (moreover when you live in a "non dégroupé" place)

But note that Free is the only operator which has a totally French Hotline (Centrapel), based in France and with some people who knows the hardware (yes, there are some relatively good technicians there...). Your thought about hotlines based somewhere in Africa is not true concerning Free.

Oh OK Mbee, I assumed Free was using abroad hotline services like the whole bunch of other DSL access providers..

Thanks for clearing that up, mate!

Philippe

What a bunch of helpful people you are!

Jerome I didn't get your PM. In fact I always have PM problems on this forum.

Thanks very much all. Lots investigate and I'll report back.

Steve