Following the acquisition of Telecom Italia by the Iliad Group (trading as Free) late last year, 150 resellers have had to find a new provider for their customers. This has affected the English speaking Expat market particularly hard, with many experiencing difficulties with the change to a new service.
Naturally customers will take the opportunity to look around for the best deals on the market whilst some of the biggest companies are using telemarketing teams to promote their service. Large numbers are now reporting that the services they were sold over the telephone that offered big savings simply do not work. This is because the savings are made by removing or reducing the line rental cost, putting all calls and services over the broadband service. Whilst this service works very well it can not be received in all locations and proper tests have to be made.
This is where the problems start as the telemarketing teams are unlikely to offer to undertake the simple test as they are only employed to make a sale. If you find after you have purchased such a service it does not work the costs are considerable. Apart from having a very poor and intermittent telephone call service the broadband connection may be unstable as well. The only solution will be to cancel the service, but as it is usually sold with a minimum 1 year contract the balance of the contract will have to be paid in full. On top of this you will have to pay for a new telephone line to be installed and subject to a reliable service being available a new broadband service, with all the costs associated with it.
The message could not be clearer: buyer beware!
The choices used to be simple, either you could only get a slow dial-up service or if you were lucky enough to be in an area where it was available a broadband connection with a speed related to the distance your property was from the local exchange. Now there are so many choices it is very hard for you to be certain you are being offered or have chosen the most appropriate service. This is made worse by there being no apparent place to go for good honest advice. This complicated market can be understood if you know what questions to ask. The comments here apply to services where you have chosen another provider to take over and manage your broadband service. Here are a few examples of what is available:
Non Degroupage: (Found mainly in small towns and villages.) This is where the broadband service is applied to your France Telecom line and the broadband equipment in your local exchange is owned by France Telecom. You will still have to rent your line and you may be able to make some savings by sending your telephone calls over the broadband service (VOIP). Several providers also offer unlimited call packages. This service is the most widely available and estimated at 85% of the English speaking Expat market and is the most stable with speeds up to 20mb. Beware that this service is also sold at a low price with a speed limited to just 512K with extra costs for an upgrade in speed. It is also the more expensive of the options and this is why customers are keen to examine the alternatives.
Degroupage: (Found mainly in big and medium cities.) This service also uses the France Telecom line but the provider (SFR for example) has installed its own equipment in your local exchange. This service is often linked to a reduced line rental cost and again depending on the supplier unlimited call packages will be available. The maximum speed will be 20mb.
ADSL Nu: (Found mainly in small towns and villages.) This service uses the France Telecom broadband equipment in the local exchange, but the line is managed by the broadband provider. This is the other most widely available service and in the right circumstances is also very stable. Not all providers offer unlimited call packages with this service. This offer is also available to approximately 85% of the English speaking Expat customers but if the service proves to be unstable all services will be lost. Those particularly at risk will live in rural areas where the quality of the signal is low and where mobile coverage is also poor. Without doubt this service produces the majority of customer complaints through being miss sold so do check with near neighbours to see if they have it and what they think.
Degroupage Total: (Found mainly in big and medium cities.) This is where both the line and the broadband equipment in the exchange are owned by the same provider and is the one where the €voice€ narrow band spectrum of the telephone line is disabled cancelling the line rental cost. Only 15% of the Expat customers are likely to live in an area where this service is available. Those particularly at risk will live in rural areas where the quality of the signal is low and where mobile coverage is also poor. It offers very good savings if you are lucky enough to be in a good location but has caused more customer dissatisfaction that most any other product in this market.
What to ask if you get a sales call in English: Many French telecoms companies are targeting the English speaking communities offering these services. One important consideration is if the technical support is in English also. In many cases it will not be and problems with Broadband are much more difficult to deal with than with problem telephone services. Technical French can be a real problem for some people and if this is something that will trouble you it would be wise to consider companies that provide technical support in English that can be cheaper as well. It is also wise to check the quality of the service as many can take up to two days to respond to a loss of service and several providers require you to call their premium rate number for help.
A few words on telephone calls and call packages to help you make additional good savings might be useful. Nearly all French providers charge a €connection fee€, meaning that every time a number you have dialled is answered a one off flat fee is charge, typically €0.12 in addition to the cost for the time the call is in progress. It is a charge that has long since disappeared from the UK market and can add a significant amount to your bill. Typical savings for someone with a typical Expat call pattern of 60% can be made by seeking an alternative to France Telecom and with most of their competitors making similar charges it is worth taking some time to seek out better deals without sacrificing quality.
Unlimited call packages are also worth checking very carefully. The principle is that for a single monthly payment you can make an unlimited number of calls to the destinations included in your chosen group, which can include one or more international destinations. The €free€ calls are nearly always limited to €landlines€; that is ordinary numbers using the equivalent of the UK STD code. Mobiles, premium rate and marketing numbers except French 0800 numbers will not be included. Again, there is a big difference in how marketing numbers are charged and if you regularly call UK marketing numbers you will need to check these costs out to avoid heavy bills. One other thing to look out for is a small minority of providers who charge a connection charge to all €free€ calls in their packages. This charge can be much higher than the usual €0.12!
With the very low prices now available you may be better off choosing a €pay as you go€ service first and once you know what you are likely to spend on calls decide if an unlimited call package will actually save you money.
With a poor exchange rate and very low interest rates likely to be with us for some time enthusiasm for making savings has never been grater, but a wrong decision will cost a lot so seek a reliable company that is committed to not miss selling any of its products and change will be a positive experience.
THE front page article (September) about the need to stop abuses in the telecoms industry describes a real need for more consumer protection. Unlike the UK, the French market is poorly regulated and customers continue to suffer financially and lose services as a result of bad practices that are prohibited by OFCOM, the UK regulator.
There are many examples of people receiving unsolicited approaches, either in person or by telephone, from representatives of telecom service providers offering them a €good deal.€
If any expression of interest is shown, for example by simply agreeing to receive marketing literature, customers have found that they have their services transferred to this new supplier € often at a higher cost because of their connection and other charges.
Complaints about this are simply rebuffed and the regulatory body is no help whatsoever.
The need for caution has never been higher.
The latest campaign that expats need to be aware of is the selling of a relatively new service €Degroupage€. This still requires a France Telecom line but its ability to carry calls is suspended, saving the France Telecom line rental charge.
The new provider puts all calls over the Internet, offering very significant savings.
What expats need to know is that if they live more than five kilometres from their local France Telecom exchange (as many do) the broadband service will be unstable and slow. What is worse is that a poor broadband service is incapable of carry voice calls without the frequent loss of words and often calls fail altogether. Having to rely on mobile phones during these periods can quickly erode the anticipated financial savings. Those without a mobile may want to consider how they would deal with an emergency when the service is out of order.
Customers finding themselves in such a position and wanting to return to a traditional service usually find that their 12 or 24 month contract with the degroupage provider has very expensive early cancellation fees.
The key steps to protecting yourself are to speak with someone already using the service in your area, and to ensure you are not pressurised into taking a decision until you have been able to check the speed of your broadband line. As a general rule you will need a broadband service with at least 1 meg for basic voice traffic but for near standard quality you will need a speed of 2 meg. If you have access to a broadband service you can test your own line speed by going to www.degrouptest.com.
With regard to your recent information about France Telecom€s English-speaking line, this is generally under-stood to be limited under-resourced. It is not a service where faults can be reported and is not able to provide technical assistance. You need to call, or may be redirected by the English helpline to the Technical Helpline, number 3900. This number can only be called from within France. This service is only in French and those with little technical French may experience difficulties.
Choosing the correct telecoms provider is vital if you want to avoid costly calls. Bob Elliot sifts the wheat from the chaff
This guide will show you how to navigate the telecoms minefield in France so that you can make an informed decision when you choose a supplier.
Like BT in the UK, France Telecom is a high-cost provider. As in the UK, you can choose another provider to carry the calls made on your France Telecom telephone line. This service € Carrier Prep-Selection € works via an electronic code put on your telephone line at your local exchange. This tells France Telecom that your calls are to go over another provider€s network.
Telephone and broadband services are a must for people setting up in France. But the choice is bewildering and the risk of overpaying with France Telecom is high. France Telecom is the dominant supplier and the most expensive. Depending on which competitor you choose, you can save between 20% and 60% on a typical bill for phone calls.
Line rental
As in the UK, you have to rent a telephone line; in nearly all cases this is rented from France Telecom. France Telecom has an English Help Line (in France 0800 364775, from overseas 003355786056) for sales only. Do not be surprised if you have to wait a long time for your call to be answered as the service is under resourced.
You are likely to find that an enquiry to the French-language sales line will result in a high pressures sales pitch aimed at getting you to buy a call package and internet services € at extortionately high rates. Should you say no, you may find the level of helpfulness plummets € in many cases the sales person simply hangs up. This is because France Telecom staff are paid on a commission basis.
UK Telecom can arrange the rental of your line from France Telecom for a small fee. This is particularly useful if you have little French or have time pressures to contend with.
Who can you trust?
France€s telecoms environment is not as heavily regulated as its UK equivalent. It is very much a case of buyer beware. Providers impose all sorts of hidden charges in order to claim that services are being provided more cheaply than is actually the case.
In addition, there is a great deal of misleading advertising that simply would not be allowed in the UK. Neither the French regulator, ARCEP, nor the consumer watchdog, Direction G€n€rale de la Concurrence de la Consommation et de la R€pression des Fraudes (DGCCRF), have addressed these problems.
Here are some simple tips to help you avoid paying through the nose:
Beware of mis-selling
You will probably rent a telephone line from France Telecom. But be aware, many customers are persuaded to take expensive call packages and broadband services as well.
Ask about free services
There are many other services you can pay for and the most popular are listed at the back of this guide.
When you order your line, do not forget to ask about the four free line services which France Telecom provides:
Voicemail.
Conversation € trois (speak with two people at the same time).
Ex-directory (liste rouge).
Online account management.
Suspend your line from one month to one year.
Suspend the service for up to six times a year.
This service does not remove your Carrier Pre-Selection service. So if you have chosen to save money by using an alternative provider for your phone calls, the arrangement will remain in place. You have to ask for this service € France Telecom will not tell you about it.
Only rent your line when you need it
There is a special service that many second homeowners use to save paying line rental for the months when they are not in France. Instead of applying for a standard line, they rent a €ligne residence secondaire€. With this arrangement you simply advise France Telecom when you do not want the line and your line rental charges will be suspended.
Check the actual services provided
Services provided by alternatives to France Telecom may appear the same but can be very different. For example, France Telecom will charge for all calls to UK 08 numbers. Not all other French providers are able to give you access to 08 numbers in the UK. These 08 numbers are most often needed to contact British banks, insurance companies etc.
If this is important to you, check before you sign up. But don€t just check that the service is available, check the cost as there are huge variations.
The latest 0844 and 071 UK numbers (which have been added due to capacity having been reached on the 0800, 0870 and 0845 numbers) are not available through France Telecom and most other providers € so again, check if this is important to you.
Check terms and conditions
Look out for websites aimed at English-speaking customers that contain lots of product information, but where the terms and conditions are not in English. There is usually a reason for this! Businesses with nothing to hide will have no interest in avoiding the small cost of the translation.
Understand your €connection charge€
A connection charge is often made in France every time you dial a number and the call is answered. It is typically 12c (cents). Surprisingly, this is often a more important consideration than the €headline€ cost of calls, which advertisers promote. This is a charge that has long since disappeared in the UK, following BT€s loss of it€s monopoly.
This connection charge may not sound like very much but, because the average call to a mobile phone is 1.5 minutes and that to a land line is between three and five minutes, you may find yourself paying between 30% and 60% more than you need to every month. So unless you always make long calls, avoid providers who charge connection fees.
Know the minimum call charges
Look out for hidden costs buried away in the small print such as a minimum call charge, or the units in which calls are billed. This rounding up of costs will again add to an otherwise apparently competitive service. Although this is a less common problem, it is still a mechanism some providers use to maximise their profits at your expense.
Monthly fee charges
Look out for this major hidden cost. You may find that, when you are away from home for an extended period, you get charged a minimum fee simply for having an account, although you have not made a single call.
Be sceptical about €free call packages€
The old saying €there is no such thing as a free lunch€ applies to the telephony market in France. You will frequently come across adverts offering €Free Calls€. This is simply misleading.
What is being advertised is an €unlimited call package€, for which you are charged a monthly fee. Such mis-selling, which is banned in the UK, conceals a raft of other dangers.
There are several types of €unlimited calls€ packages, including:
Within France to land lines (calls to mobile are also available with some carriers).
To land lines for a number of European countries.
For calls to landlines to an €Anglo€ group of countries usually the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada and the USA. The package may also include calls to mobiles in the USA and Canada.
The headline rates may look good, so check on the cost of calls and types of lines to destinations not included in the package, as some providers take advantage of the headline, resulting in less thorough checks on the cost of calls outside of the service. Particularly, check the cost to mobiles and to other international destinations which you may routinely wish to call.
With their emphasis on headline rates, some providers may prove very costly.
There have recently been complaints about a promotion being run by Phonexpat. Their call package provides €free calls€ to one country for €7 a month. But their press advert does not make it clear that, while the call is €free€, A 22c connection charge applies to each call made and that each call is limited to 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, normal charges apply.
Avoid long-term contracts
If a service is good, there is no need for the provider to insist on you signing a long-term contact. A quality, reasonable cost provider has no need to force you into a contract lasting three months, a year or two years, which is sometimes the case. If you are asked to do this, it may be because the customer care available afterwards is poor and difficult or expensive to access. In addition, you may find yourself locked into paying much more than necessary.
Service after you€ve signed up
Many providers offer a freephone service for sales enquiries. For all other service calls they give you different numbers, some of which may be premium rate numbers. These lines are sometimes poorly staffed, making it difficult and/or expensive to get help to resolve a problem or raise a question over a bill.
You may also find that, while the sales service is in English, the customer care or technical support is only available in French.
A quality, customer-forced business will provide free phone access for customers and prospective customers alike.
Paying your bills
You may want to be able to pay your bills by a UK direct debit rather than a French pr€l€vement. Very few providers offer this choice, so check this out if it is important to you.
Making it cheaper for friends and family back in the UK
The cost of making a call to France from a BT domestic line in the UK is high, at 18.5p per minute at peak times and 10p per minute off-peak. There is, however, a long established alternative that provides big cost savings € at just 3p per minute, with per-second-billing.
The principle is simple: the provider €translates€ your French telephone number into a British number, starting 0844, and this can then be given to any friends and relations in the UK who may want to contact you. This service has no effect at all on the way your French number works and all calls made to it will connect in the usual way. The calls are made over landlines so the call quality is good.
You do not have to sign a contract and your friends relations phoning you from the UK simply get billed on their own telephone account for a local number. Charges for calling from a mobile phone will of course vary and, with so many call plans, the callers will have to make their own checks. Some call plans may include calls to this service within the package.
Make sure you shop around for this service; you can pay as much as €4 a month to rent an 0844 number, or nothing at all. But to avoid 0811 dial-through numbers. You may come across promotions for €cheap€ calls to anywhere in the world by simply dialling an 0811 number followed by the number you want to call. These are typically advertised as costing just 1.4c per minute. The real cost is much more, unless you only want to speak for three minutes at a time. This is how the true costs mount up:
You have to dial an 0811 number.
If you use France Telecom or other providers you will be charged 2.8c per minute peak and 1.4c off-peak.
In addition, you will be charged a connection fee of 7.8c.
In effect, you are paying 10.6c for the first minute and the service-provider€s minute charge thereafter.
After three minutes conversation and your call is then terminated and you have to start again.
Check list
Use this check list from UK Telecom to compare services between service providers
Can lines be supplied/arranged?
Is the customer sales service bilingual
Are all calls to the provider free?
Is there a free for having an account?
Cost for first minute to:
local landlines incl. tax
national landlines incl. tax
mobiles:
to UK including tax
Can calls to UK 0800 0845 and 0870 be made on this service?
Cost/min for calls UK numbers:
0800
0845
0870
Cost of unlimited call packages for:
land lines in France
Anglo group of countries
Is there a low-cost number (0844) for UK friends and family to use?
Is there a monthly rental charge for the number?
What is the notice period for the cancellation of the contract?
Don€t get highjacked!
Having decided which telephone service provider is right for you, it should be a simple case of paying the bills when they arrive, right? Wrong! The problem with a weak regulatory system is that providers can get away with extraordinarily bad behaviour which, in effect, is condoned.
Unauthorised change of provider
Like any other business, France Telecom does not like to lose customers. If you take the decision to buy your call time from an alternative provider, you will receive a letter from France Telecom acknowledging your decision, together with a form for you to use should you wish to return to France Telecom.
If your understanding of French is limited, you may simply complete this form and return it. This would be a mistake as the form is intended for use if you choose at any time in the future to return to France Telecom. So while this would not be an unauthorised change of provider, it would have the same effect through a lack of awareness.
You will have gone through a lot of bureaucratic hoops to set up your services. So you would think that any subsequent changes would be equally difficult to effect. Not so!
If you merely take a phone call from a competitor of your supplier and out of politeness express an interest in their rates, this may be interpreted as an agreement on your part to change them! Unwittingly, you can be switched to another provider. And don€t expect any support from the customer protection body. They will agree with the company taking traffic that you have done enough to justify the transfer of your account to them.
If you have limited French, you are particularly vulnerable to this type of pressurised selling. All you can do is cancel the contract as quickly as possible and let all your friends know of the bad practice.
France Telecom€s special arrangement with the regulator
We can all make mistakes, and we expect to carry the responsibility for them. Not so with France telecom. They are the largest provider and inevitable mistakes will occur within the huge number of transactions undertaken every day.
If you have taken a decision to leave France Telecom but find that your service has been taken back, you have no right to claim compensation for the higher charges you have incurred from them as a result. The arrangement they have with ARCEP, the regulator, is that they are allowed a 4% error rate in their processing activities.
There is a view that France Telecom uses this €licence€ to take back customers, knowing that there is no instruction or authorisation for them to do so, using the 4% margin of error allowed to them. There are examples of this happening to customers not once but up to three times in rapid succession! The system is weighted against the consumer € take care!
Bob Elliot is commercial director of UK Telecom.
This text is extracted from UK Telecom€s €Lifting the lid on the French Telephone & Broadband Industry€. A free cope is available to all FPN readers via www.uktelecom.uk.net
The explosion in telecommunications providers has lead to an inevitable increase on fraud and sharp practice. Here Bob Elliott tells how to avoid the dodgy dealers and where to go for the best services.
In the world of telecoms where extravagant claims and hidden charges are prolific, and with the market in France slowly deregulating, fraud and sharp practice are now emerging. France Telecom€s (the country€s largest telecom company) call charges can be as much as 60% more than independent providers€, and with big profits come bad deals.
But how do you pick up your way through the minefield? There have been tales of unsolicited phone calls or visits to homes by commission-only sales people who seek to establish a verbal contact that can bind you to changing your provider, even if you have not understood the conversation because of language difficulties. Worse still, there has been an example where a direct debit/pr€l€vemnet has been forged € so beware of unsolicited approaches.
After receiving several complaints of illegal business practices, the French competition watchdog raided the offices of France Telecom earlier this year following complaints over the company€s practice of trying to persuade former customers to return, a practice known as €win-back€. Inspectors made forays into France Telecom€s retail shops, customer call centres and other offices and big fines followed.
The days of a single service supplied by a state monopoly have long gone and there is a wide range of choice. Internet solutions such as Skype can look good, but if you are calling someone who is not on the service the break-out charge to get on to the local exchange can add significantly to your costs. In addition an IP phone or Skype requires a ADSL connection and a PC, not a practical alternative when you are on the move. This, together with problems of poor connectivity, call quality and calls dropping out have seen the market in the UK stay at around 3% of those with internet access.
Many of the alternatives, however, who use other carriers such as Colt and Verizon, offer very low call charges but have ways of including costs hidden deep down in their contracts. The three most common to look out for are firstly, a connection charge made as soon as the number connects which is often as high as 12 cents, secondly, calls rounded up to as much as a full minute so a call of one minute and one second can cost 12 cents for the connection and 3 cents for each minute, totalling 18 cents, comparing unfavourable with the 3 cents-per-minute charge advertised, and thirdly, the rounding up costs. If your provider is not rounding up the call cost to .01 of a cent you are being treated badly. The simple message is choose a provider that has no hidden charges or be prepared for some surprises!
Having got the best price for the service, how comprehensive is it? Many UK expats need to call 0800, 0870 and 0845 UK numbers to access their banks€, insurance companies€ etc call centres. While France Telecom offers this service, you have to apply for it. Many of its competitors don€t even provide the service!
Calling via the internet
Most commonly known as VOIP calls (phoning over the internet), these phone lines offer large savings for certain types of call. They do not have the same quality as a regular phone line but the savings can make up for this.
Packages provided by broadband companies usually include a number of unlimited calls or limited free minutes to fixed lines, these calls are only free if they are made from one broadband user to another. If not, then the person making the call will pay a much higher rate to a standard fixed line € commonly knows as a €break-out charge. Make sure you check with your supplier what these charges are as they could double the price you pay. It is handy to have a low€cost alternative supplier on your France Telecom line in addition as this will not conflict with your ADSL or VOIP calls and you can then still make savings over France Telecom.
We have all seen the adverts claiming we can call the world at local rates using services staring with 0811, but go behind the headline and the truth is very different! It is true if you only wish to speak to the €rest of the world€ for three minutes at a time, but as soon as you dial the 0811 number you are paying for a local rate call (France Telecom charges 2.8 cents per minute peak and 1.4 cents off-peak). Look into the fine print on the provider€s websites and you will see that you will be charged a connection fee of 7.8 cents, so the real cost is 10.6 cents for the first minute. After three minutes your call will be terminated and you have to start again! With calls to the US available through your usual supplier from as little as 2.99 cents per minute without the hassle of special dialling codes, it represents a bad deal.
UK calling goes digital
So now you can call your friends back home and the rest of the world much more cheaply. Great, but what happens when they want to call you? A call from the UK over BT€s residential service will cost 18.5p per minute at peak time and 10p off-peak. It is possible to have your French telephone number converted to a UK one so the cost to call is it slashed to 2p per minute.
The bad news is that this service is about to be discontinued. Apparently the technology used is not up to modern standards and the service is running at a loss. Customers will see a drop in quality with calls failing mid conversation € not good if you are running a business.
The good news is that there is a new service using the digital technology with calls going over BT lines, using a back-up to meet any capacity problems, so the quality has taken a leap forward. It€s even configured in such a way that when the VOIP market really takes off you can divert your UK number to an IP phone when you are not on the move. The new service at just 3p per minute (calls to mobiles differ) still offers huge savings to UK residents with family and friends in France (billing is per second). Unfortunately current users will not be able to take their €UK€ number with them if they use the new service.
As the new service is digital it also offers enhanced services particularly designed for businesses with clients in the UK, for example estate agents. In addition to addressing the OFCOM finding that business is lost due to people in the UK being reluctant to call an overseas number, they can have a €golden€ or €memorable€ number that is easily remembered, voicemail, or voice recorded calls direct to their PCs, calls going from their €UK€ number to their office and mobile at the same time, and many more features. The service is easy to use € there are no contracts for the owner of the French telephone number to sign and users in the UK are simply billed in the usual way by their current provider.
Getting in the zone
So you can now call the world for less and your friends can call you without having to think about the cost as well. Good, but how about getting a reliable internet service? The first thing to remember is that if you choose a wireless solution it may not be compatible with your discount telephone service! But the research does not stop there, and given any language difficulties research is needed before contacts are signed as they are typically for a year.
The next thing to establish is if an internet service is available and what zone you are in. This will affect your choice of provider and will depend on you being in a €degroup€e€, €non-degroup€ or €d€groupage total€. Once you have established who can provide a service and at the right price, you need to decide what type.
You can even choose to buy telephone, internet and TV services through some providers. You then need to specify the service € most people buy ADSL, which runs over your France Telecom line, with France Telecom€s Orange taking nearly half the market.
Depending on your needs and location you can have between 2mbps and 24mbps (megabits per second), the larger being suitable for downloading games and films. Be careful though as some providers offer poor contention ratios and download restrictions. Sometimes the face value of the deal hides these problems while locking you into a contact that doesn€t meet your needs.
Start by looking at www.ADSL-facile.com, and then visit the various suppliers€ websites, having your telephone number and postcode to hand:
Without doubt there are many wonderful things about living in France. One possible downside is the cost of keeping in touch with friends and family in other countries. The days of dialling an operator for an international number have long since disappeared; mobiles that can reach all corners of the world and send emails and photographs, allow everyone to stay in touch at a price. However, very few of us would want to use the most expensive way of communicating as their main choice of staying in touch.
With the continuing low pound to euro exchange rate, coupled with interest income being lower than anyone can remember, interest in the telecoms market has never been greater. The one real benefit to members of the public from the developments in telephony is that the single option of the national carrier, France Telecom, has been replaced by a wide choice of independent services. Most of these offer both big savings and special services such as a full English language customer support section.
UKtelecom has, like others, seen an unprecedented increase in new customers in 2009. The combination of having savings of up to 60% and all services € from line rental to broadband € being included in one bill, with choices of services combined into bargain packages, have become irresistible in today€s climate. You can even pay from a UK bank account if you wish!
Not all alternatives to France Telecom are the same, so it is important to look at the €small print€. Look out for connection charges, typically €0.12 every time the number you dial is connected, check the international rates (you pay no more to call the UK than to call your French neighbour with UKtelecom) and especially the cost of calls to mobiles.
There are other ways to save money that might work for you. If you have a second home in France you can choose to have a €Ligne Residence Secondaire€ from France Telecom, allowing you to suspend your line rental costs when you are not using it. This service is not compatible with broadband but still allows you to make big savings on all your calls if you use an alternative company.
If you are a g€te owner and have found it difficult to let properties, try investigating installing broadband using wireless connection so all your guests can have access to the internet. The number of people now wanting to remain in touch with friends and work when away is increasing rapidly, and it is this type of additional service that might just make the difference to your property being chosen over others.
Many g€te properties are built of stone and can present problems with broadband access via a wireless connection, but there are devices that can overcome the majority of problems, so speak to your provider for some good free advice.
A note of caution! There continues to be a certain amount of miss selling of broadband in France. The offer is based on a very low cost for broadband, line and calls, but what is not made clear is that to get these big savings the voice side of your telephone line is disabled, and all your calls go over the internet VOIP service. If the line is of good enough quality this is a good service to choose. However, careful line tests need to be done to make certain. If you sign up for this service without being sure that your telephone line will support it, you may find you have no broadband, no call service, and will have to cancel the new service. This will usually involve a big cancellation fee and you will have to pay France Telecom to install a new line as well! (Don€t be surprised if the sales person you speak with does not run the test for you € they are paid on commission and all they need to achieve is a sale.)
It will cost you nothing to ask one of the many providers that advertise regularly to make the test € it will cost you nothing, but pay you dividends in peace of mind.
Choose wisely and you will both save yourself money, have a superior customer support function and be able to pay all your bills in one transaction. Then you can get back to concentrating on using the technology to bring friends and family closer € you never know, they might be so impressed that they choose to join you enjoying life in France!
