Free, ADSL and landlines

[martyn94]

It struck me walking back from Intermarché that I had really had no idea what your sophisticated call blocker was meant to do, or how it was doing it. If the VOIP line is dead, then there doesn't seem much need to block much but perhaps I'm missing something. If it's live, Free allow you to block calls on particular numbers, or particular ranges of numbers, inwards and outwards, backwards forwards and sideways, if you type it all in, which could admittedly be very tedious.

Nice to know that you think of me when walking home from Intermarché .

First of all, if I relied on the Freebox to provide a telephone service then it would only work for 4 days a week because of the poor line so I wouldn't use it however good their call blocking.

My call blocker allows me to blacklist or whitelist numbers or ranges of numbers but more importantly it intercepts calls that I may not want and asks the caller to say who they are? Most cold callers hang up at that stage and the rest I get to choose if I want to speak to them or not.

If I don't want to speak to them they get blacklisted and transferred to a "bugger off and don't call' back" message. If I do want to speak to them, I can answer the call or send them to voicemail and optionally whitelist them.

Thank god I don't get the torrent of junk calls that would make me find and fit this kit, and (more so) remember how to use it. I used to have almost the reverse issue many years ago: a guy who worked for me used to wait until everything went through to his answerphone (remember them?), on speaker, before deciding whether to deign to reply. Phones were regarded as an awful nuisance in parts of the civil service in those days.

[Gus Morris]

For what its worth.

Just received an e-mail from Orange saying they've improved my Internet speed. Which was never bad in the first place! I moved to phone calls via VOIP a while back. Never had a problem and, of course, kept my old number.

Many years back I signed up for the Orange service which keeps my phone number out of the printed directory and makes it unavailable to 3rd parties who buy info from Orange for tele-marketing. Can't recall what the service is called now. It has changed name a couple of times. I got it when it was offered free of charge. Works like a dream.

Gus

[Boomshanka]

Just signed up to Free.fr and was going to sugest it to you Allan as you have poor internet which you needed 4G to solve.

Kept landline no. and benefit for all our phones being on the plan so we both get the lower priceed calls, SMS, MMS & 4G as well as being able to use the plan in loads of countries (especially UK for business trips) but you just have 5GB per month data whuilst roaming.

Landline here gets 3-5Mbs but the 4G is 55+Mbs. Have tested the data sevice and there is no throttling at all.
4K movies stream without issue. and 1080p live TV is not a problem.

If you can get Free 4G in the PO area it is a great deal. Argeles was getting sub 2Mbs so it really is worth the switch.

The Staff at the Free shop are excellent as well.

So refreshing to get great service and product.

[Allan]

Just signed up to Free.fr and was going to sugest it to you Allan as you have poor internet which you needed 4G to solve.

Kept landline no. and benefit for all our phones being on the plan so we both get the lower priceed calls, SMS, MMS & 4G as well as being able to use the plan in loads of countries (especially UK for business trips) but you just have 5GB per month data whuilst roaming.

Landline here gets 3-5Mbs but the 4G is 55+Mbs. Have tested the data sevice and there is no throttling at all.
4K movies stream without issue. and 1080p live TV is not a problem.

If you can get Free 4G in the PO area it is a great deal. Argeles was getting sub 2Mbs so it really is worth the switch.

The Staff at the Free shop are excellent as well.

So refreshing to get great service and product.

It is not the landline number that I am bothered about, it is the landline itself. If I switched to a VoIP phone it would be as unreliable as ADSL and since it will be the same line as I used with Orange then I would expect it to be unreliable.

Montgolfière says that he kept his landline but his contract was with Alice and may not be relevant. As it happens, I have run some tests with Free 4G, less than 1km from my house I get extremely fast 4G but actually at my house I only get a download speed of about 3mb and that's with a roof antenna.

It looks like I may have to wait for them to bring another mast on-line, then I will ask Free about the landline. Until then I'll stick with Bouygues 4G at a significantly higher cost.

On a slightly different topic, I seem to recall that Free restricted their cellular internet phones and not tablets or routers. I can't see any such restriction there now, or have I missed it?

[Boomshanka]

Here you go Allan and anyone else in the PO area.
4G data internet which is excellent in the PO for €30 a month

https://www.bouyguestelecom.fr/offres-internet/4g-box

[russell]

There seems to be a bit of confusion here about landlines.

Unless you have fibre to the home, both ADSL and the Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) are delivered over a twisted copper pair landline. They are not separated physically but by frequency. It's a bit like tuning between different stations on an old analogue radio.

In France the copper pairs are owned by Orange (formerly France Telecom) and they will always be able to provide POTS over their line.

Russell

[martyn94]

There seems to be a bit of confusion here about landlines.

Unless you have fibre to the home, both ADSL and the Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) are delivered over a twisted copper pair landline. They are not separated physically but by frequency. It's a bit like tuning between different stations on an old analogue radio.

In France the copper pairs are owned by Orange (formerly France Telecom) and they will always be able to provide POTS over their line.

Russell

I think that Allan's issue is that switching to a "degrouped " provider, like Free, normally means giving up your POTS and relying on their ADSL, including their VOIP phone service. It's still the same old twisted pair, but it's done differently. It never struck me to find out whether I could keep my POTS once I moved to Free: their VOIP has been fine for me, and I was content to save the extra rental, and stop mucking about with filters on my landline. It was also useful to search out and remove the condensers that messed up my internet speed.

[Allan]

Here you go Allan and anyone else in the PO area.
4G data internet which is excellent in the PO for €30 a month

https://www.bouyguestelecom.fr/offres-internet/4g-box

I have to say this looks brilliant but they don't say anything on their website about any data limitations.

Their site tells me that I cannot get the service at my house, even though I currently connect to them at more than 30mb.

I'll go and speak to them.

[Allan]

There seems to be a bit of confusion here about landlines.

Unless you have fibre to the home, both ADSL and the Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) are delivered over a twisted copper pair landline. They are not separated physically but by frequency. It's a bit like tuning between different stations on an old analogue radio.

In France the copper pairs are owned by Orange (formerly France Telecom) and they will always be able to provide POTS over their line.

Russell

I think that Allan's issue is that switching to a "degrouped " provider, like Free, normally means giving up your POTS and relying on their ADSL, including their VOIP phone service. It's still the same old twisted pair, but it's done differently. It never struck me to find out whether I could keep my POTS once I moved to Free: their VOIP has been fine for me, and I was content to save the extra rental, and stop mucking about with filters on my landline. It was also useful to search out and remove the condensers that messed up my internet speed.

Exactly, I am well aware of the difference.

[martyn94]

Here you go Allan and anyone else in the PO area.
4G data internet which is excellent in the PO for €30 a month

https://www.bouyguestelecom.fr/offres-internet/4g-box

I have to say this looks brilliant but they don't say anything on their website about any data limitations.

Their site tells me that I cannot get the service at my house, even though I currently connect to them at more than 30mb.

I'll go and speak to them.

I nearly mentioned this myself, but you've always seemed so much on top of all this that I didn't bother (I looked at it for my gaff in Normandy, where their map says I have no reception, but would have 200m away, on the other side of the ridge, which seems about right). I believe they offer to give you a refund if you don't get decent service.

[Allan]

I nearly mentioned this myself, but you've always seemed so much on top of all this that I didn't bother (I looked at it for my gaff in Normandy, where their map says I have no reception, but would have 200m away, on the other side of the ridge, which seems about right). I believe they offer to give you a refund if you don't get decent service.

Bouygues have had a 4G offering for some time but it has always been limited to 40gb a month with no top-up option. This new offering doesn't mention any limitations and seems specifically aimed at people with poor or no ADSL .

I currently have 4G with Bouygues but billed through Travel Wifi but it costs me a lot, hence my interest in lower cost alternatives.

I wonder if the 4G infrastructure has now reached the point where they can afford not to limit it, though no doubt someone will have invented a 'fair use' policy that stops it ever from being unlimited.

In my case, I put an antenna on the roof which increased my speed from 5mb to more than 30mbs.

[martyn94]

I nearly mentioned this myself, but you've always seemed so much on top of all this that I didn't bother (I looked at it for my gaff in Normandy, where their map says I have no reception, but would have 200m away, on the other side of the ridge, which seems about right). I believe they offer to give you a refund if you don't get decent service.

Bouygues have had a 4G offering for some time but it has always been limited to 40gb a month with no top-up option. This new offering doesn't mention any limitations and seems specifically aimed at people with poor or no ADSL .

I currently have 4G with Bouygues but billed through Travel Wifi but it costs me a lot, hence my interest in lower cost alternatives.

I wonder if the 4G infrastructure has now reached the point where they can afford not to limit it, though no doubt someone will have invented a 'fair use' policy that stops it ever from being unlimited.

In my case, I put an antenna on the roof which increased my speed from 5mb to more than 30mbs.

It was the new offering I was thinking of. There is nothing more annoying in the world than people who say "I almost told you about XYZ". But evidently you are more than up to speed.

I must check what a roof aerial would do for me in Normandy. Though in my case I would need an OK signal rather than sweet damn all.

I suspect that any operator will have some sort of "fair use" let out. And I can see why.

[Boomshanka]

Allan

This is exactly the same as the Travel Wifi but has no restrictions and will save you a fortune. You can even use the sim in your existing router.

All of the big providers are offering unlimited 4G packs now but only Bouygues offer a pure stand alone internet package. Free and SFR are via the mobile options.

This is what we wanted 12 months ago when i met you, unfortunately i was let down by Travel Wifi and you know the rest. This is why when i saw this i immediately though of you and how it will work and save you money.

This will benefit so many people in the area as the landlines are awful and Bouygues have great coverage over most of the area.

[Allan]

Allan

This is exactly the same as the Travel Wifi but has no restrictions and will save you a fortune. You can even use the sim in your existing router.

All of the big providers are offering unlimited 4G packs now but only Bouygues offer a pure stand alone internet package. Free and SFR are via the mobile options.

This is what we wanted 12 months ago when i met you, unfortunately i was let down by Travel Wifi and you know the rest. This is why when i saw this i immediately though of you and how it will work and save you money.

This will benefit so many people in the area as the landlines are awful and Bouygues have great coverage over most of the area.

Do you know all this as fact, or are you making suppositions?

Unfortunately their website says that the deal is not available at my address.

I put in another address close to the mast to which I connect and it said it was not available there either. It may be they are upgrading masts, or the infrastructure that connects those masts.

In any case I will speak with Bouygues.

[Pearsonb]

Bouygues put leaflets about this in our postboxes on Friday. I also looked for a data limit but saw none. So I have signed up for the trial 30 days.

I have asked around Saint Laurent de Cerdans for news about the Internet but nobody seemed to know anything. So this was a pleasant surprise.

Pearson

[russell]

I think that Allan's issue is that switching to a "degrouped " provider, like Free, normally means giving up your POTS and relying on their ADSL, including their VOIP phone service.

It is "normally" because that is what most people opt for. After all it is cheaper. However it is a choice the consumer has. I certainly know of one person in the next village who has ADSL provided by Free but has also retained his Orange/FT POTS telephone.

The point I was trying to make (perhaps not very well) is that a number of people have been talking of landlines vs ADSL when ADSL is carried by the same landline as the old telephone system.

Russell.

[Pearsonb]

Got my package from Bouygues and just tried it out. Speedtest is showing 10 with a slightly higher figure for upload, which is unusual isn't it?

I haven't tested it for the best position- I just have it sitting on the sofa next to me. But this is a definite keeper for me.

The box is Huawei LTE CUBE e5180.

Pearson

[Pearsonb]

I took the box to friends outside the village. They usually get under 1 with their Livebox. We got 13 with the 4g box.

[Allan]

Got my package from Bouygues and just tried it out. Speedtest is showing 10 with a slightly higher figure for upload, which is unusual isn't it?

I haven't tested it for the best position- I just have it sitting on the sofa next to me. But this is a definite keeper for me.

The box is Huawei LTE CUBE e5180.

Pearson

Good to hear that it is working for you.

4G generally gives similar speeds in both directions

That router supports a VoIP telephone, are Bouygues offering that, or is it just internet?

[Pearsonb]

I am afraid I don't have a landline phone so I couldn't test it directly. But I have been given an06 number for the box so I tried dialling that from my mobile and it didn't work. No mention of voip in my client area online.

Pearson

[Pearsonb]

I've now had the 4g box for several days. Some good news and some bad news.

The upload speed stays consistently above 10, whereas before it was below 1. As somebody who earns my money on the Internet, this has been great. Dreamweaver is whizzing along. I also find Windows 10 much more responsive.

The download speed has varied wildly, from over 15 to under 1. During the day it is pretty good but drops a bit at lunchtime and a lot after 6. I presume that is because lots of people are accessing the 4g signal with their telephones. I have tried watching live TV on it and some programmes played fine while others didn't work well. But even at its worst, it is as good as my Sosh internet connection.

Pearson

[martyn94]

I've now had the 4g box for several days. Some good news and some bad news.

The upload speed stays consistently above 10, whereas before it was below 1. As somebody who earns my money on the Internet, this has been great. Dreamweaver is whizzing along. I also find Windows 10 much more responsive.

The download speed has varied wildly, from over 15 to under 1. During the day it is pretty good but drops a bit at lunchtime and a lot after 6. I presume that is because lots of people are accessing the 4g signal with their telephones. I have tried watching live TV on it and some programmes played fine while others didn't work well. But even at its worst, it is as good as my Sosh internet connection.

Pearson

I poodled around a bit and found that the version of your modem that they sell in Australia has a little hatch (on the side, towards the bottom) which conceals the socket for an external antenna. If yours has that, it might be worth investigating: an external antenna can improve your signal a lot, as Allan has found. It is not going to cure the "contention" that you have found at particular times of day, but could palliate it.

[Pearsonb]

Very helpful. I have ordered one from Amazon for under 20 euros.

[Allan]

Very helpful. I have ordered one from Amazon for under 20 euros.

I tried the Amazon ones and didn't notice a significant improvement. I ended up buying this http://www.4grouters.co.uk/product/full ... al-radome/

It made an enormous difference.

I have a different model of Huaweii router so it may not be the same but on mine the antenna setting has 3 choices:- Internal, External and Automatic. I found that automatic did not work but setting it explicitly to Exrernal made all the difference

[Allan]

Well, I went to the Bouygues shop today and bought one of these.

The first point is that although their website says that the service is not available where I live, they were quite happy to supply one.

There is a good web site that tells you which masts have active 4G
https://www.antennesmobiles.fr/

I plugged it in and it worked straight away, I tried Speedtest to a Bouygues server and got a download speed of about 3mb I then ran the same test using my existing router and roof antenna to the same server and got 38mb.

I then tried several Speedtests using the 4G box and got widely carrying results, ranging from 8mb to 1mb. I noted that it connected to a variety of test servers and I think this emphasises the point that I made earlier that Speedtest cannot be relied upon as it depends on which server you get connected to. Bouygues 4G seems to hit the mainstream in Paris and there are loads of test servers there. I suggest that if you want to be consistent, always go to the same server.

I then followed Boomshanka's advice and put the Sim from the new router into my existing router with the roof antenna- it didn't work.

The first problem was the Sim is pin protected, it is however set to Bouygues default of 0000, more seriously, although it connected to 4G, it gave no internet access.

I suspect that this is because Bouygues have locked the service to their equipment but I will investigate further.

Unfortunately the external antenna connectors on the Cube E5180 are non-standard so I can't just connect it to my roof antenna. I will however try and source a converter.

I will update this post when I have more news.

[martyn94]

[quote="Allan]

Unfortunately the external antenna connectors on the Cube E5180 are non-standard so I can't just connect it to my roof antenna. I will however try and source a converter.

I will update this post when I have more news.[/quote]

I nearly warned Russell about this, but it seemed too soon to be pessimistic. It's years since I looked at this for myself, but there seems to be a mad variety of different aerial terminations. The good news is that patch cables are available and cheap, once you know what you are connecting to what.

[martyn94]

I've now had the 4g box for several days. Some good news and some bad news.

The upload speed stays consistently above 10, whereas before it was below 1. As somebody who earns my money on the Internet, this has been great. Dreamweaver is whizzing along. I also find Windows 10 much more responsive.

The download speed has varied wildly, from over 15 to under 1. During the day it is pretty good but drops a bit at lunchtime and a lot after 6. I presume that is because lots of people are accessing the 4g signal with their telephones. I have tried watching live TV on it and some programmes played fine while others didn't work well. But even at its worst, it is as good as my Sosh internet connection.

Pearson

Just out of curiosity, did you ever find an aerial which improves your service much? I've no need for it here, but it might be useful at my older place in Normandy.

[Allan]

I managed to buy some adapter leads on Amazon but at the end of the day it doesn't work.

I live within a good reception range of the mast on the water tower in Salses le Château.

I connect to it with my current (expensive) 4G connection via Bouyges.

If I put their 4G router behind the wall furthest from the mast then I get a 4G signal, albeit a weak one.

If I put it on the side nearest the mast then I get a great 4G signal but no internet. Sometimes I get a message saying that I cannot connect because I am away from home which of course is not true.

From the outset, Bouygues's web site said that the service isn't available at my address, although that didn't stop their shop from selling me one.

My conclusion is that the service is not available on all masts and that when I do get an internet connection it is because I am connected to a mast other than the one nearest me.

Tomorrow, I will take the box in the car and see which mast works and them perhaps I'll try a directional antenna.

The moral of the story is, believe them when they say it is not available

[martyn94]

I managed to buy some adapter leads on Amazon but at the end of the day it doesn't work.

I live within a good reception range of the mast on the water tower in Salses le Château.

I connect to it with my current (expensive) 4G connection via Bouyges.

If I put their 4G router behind the wall furthest from the mast then I get a 4G signal, albeit a weak one.

If I put it on the side nearest the mast then I get a great 4G signal but no internet. Sometimes I get a message saying that I cannot connect because I am away from home which of course is not true.

From the outset, Bouygues's web site said that the service isn't available at my address, although that didn't stop their shop from selling me one.

My conclusion is that the service is not available on all masts and that when I do get an internet connection it is because I am connected to a mast other than the one nearest me.

Tomorrow, I will take the box in the car and see which mast works and them perhaps I'll try a directional antenna.

The moral of the story is, believe them when they say it is not available

Thanks. Though it was Pearsonb, who had a service but not a very good one, and was just buying an aerial a few weeks ago, that I meant to interrogate. No internet service, from AOL on dial-up onwards, ever quite lives up to its hype.

[Pearsonb]

I bought the wrong mast 😒 Not had time to sort it out because I've been away.

However, yesterday evening the speed stayed around the 5 mark and I watched UK TV on my ipad with no problems at all. Hope that indicates an improvement in the service and not just a one-off.

Bouygues sent leaflets to the whole village promoting this new service. If they have not been doing that elsewhere, it probably indicates that not all 4g transmitters have this facility.

Pearson