The Old Hack

Remember that ubiquitous advertising slogan about mobile telephones?  It seems like years ago since I first saw it.  Come to think of it is years since I first saw it.  It had never really bothered me until recently.  Then I tried to get internet access from our rented home in France.....

Here it seems you can have any telephone provider you like - so long as it is Orange.  Let me explain.  Like me, you may have thought that the telephone provider for France was France Telecom.  Well it is.  Confused?  So was I.  Apparently some time ago, the internet provider Wanadoo took over France Telecom.  Then along came Orange and took over Wanadoo.  So France Telecom is now Orange - or so you might think.  The telephone line here is owned by the landlord, and is provided by France Telecom (alias Orange).  It was therefore impossible for me to organise a broadband internet connection , as I am the tenant of the house and therefore not the owner of the telephone line.  So far so good.

I contacted Orange to arrange dial up connection in my name with the account send directly to me.  I obtained the necessary log in and password and connected to the internet via a dial up modem from my landlord's telephone line.  The deal was to access the internet at any time for a fixed fee.  And so I did - though with sporadic success and an unbelievably slow connection which never allowed me time to post a blog before timing out!

Then I got a frantic call from my landlord (luckily we get on well) who had received a telephone demand from France Telecom for 150 Euros (over £100) for a month's telephone usage.

It seems that each time I had connected to the internet, France Telecom had added a call charge in addition to the standing charge required by Orange.

I telephoned the Orange helpline indignantly demanding that they refund the extra phone charges as I was paying a fixed fee to them. "No." they patiently explained, "You are paying the telephone charges to France Telecom" 

" But  you are (expletive deleted) France Telecom" I exploded.  "Oh no we're not " (I paraphrase) ...  Long and very complex explanations later I am told that should I wish to bypass France Telecom and deal exclusively with Orange, they will give me dial up access at any time of day or night for a fixed fee of 20 Euros and with no charge for calls from France Telecom (Just exactly how the original deal without the free phone calls cost more I have absolutely no clue!) A couple of weeks of this new deal cost me less financially, but even more in exasperation, as connectivity was even more sporadic than previously.

During my stay here in France I have come to know a local computer 'doctor' who is very helpful.  I explained my dilemma to him, and between us and the landlord we persuaded Orange and France Telecom (actually it was just Orange because now miraculously they seemed to be working in tandem) that I should be allowed a Broadband contract even though I am not the owner of the France Telecom line to the house.

So - If you are a regular visitor to these pages - that is why I have been out of touch for such a long time, and why I am now happily back in business.  The future's bright - the future's (what colour was that again?)