We’ve come to learn a very important lesson about phone and internet in France – France Telecom have the monopoly on phone lines and if you have the audacity to sign up with one of their competitors, FT will ensure delays. The only way to guarantee swift connection is to sign up with FT themselves.
We didn’t realise this when we signed up for our phone/internet with Free. I’m writing this post in order to help anyone who might be searching for advice in the future. But, keep in mind that I’m angry and jaded. So, don’t just take my word for it – follow the links and hear the stories of others (it seems you can’t win no matter what you do). Oh, and also keep in mind that if you choose to sign up with France Telecom initially and then change to a competitor that you will pay FT for the privilege. Thus, giving the reason for this fiasco even more money.
Most of the phone cable in France is owned by France Telecom. There are some areas where the cable is owned by Orange, but the distinction isn’t really necessary since Orange is just France Telecom wearing a different hat. This means that France Telecom are almost completely in charge of one of France’s essential communications services. Most phone connections needs to go through France Telecom at some point in the paperwork. Paper correspondence is notoriously slow in France, which means FT are very powerful when it comes to causing delays.
It seems that if the tiniest thing is wrong with a connection application from a competitor, FT will be “unable” to connect the line, thus requiring paperwork to be sent back and forth again (slowly), plus the obligatory wait for a technician to be available to connect the service. It could be that France Telecom deliberately does this in order to create delays for their competitors. There’s a bit of a war going on between France Telecom and Free, plus France Telecom are often anti-competitive.
This is what happened to us (see my previous, more personal rant). Bruce chose to denote our house as “Unit x” instead of “Porte x” which FT has decided was the correct address. Nevermind that all our official paperwork says “Maison x” or “Villa x” (Bruce couldn’t find an option for either of those). Our application was thwarted by semantics. Even the France Telecom technician couldn’t convince them to just connect the line – He lives in the same group of houses and apparently had the same problem himself when he signed up with a competitor. FT even had the nerve to charge Free 55 € for this complete lack of service. We’ve been waiting 4.5 months for a phone line to be connected. Only then will we be able to get the broadband and TV service that we signed up for. At this rate our two-year contract will be up before the service begins.
To absolve FT of a little blame here, their competitors are also tediously slow with pushing the paperwork around, which doesn’t do the customers any good.
So, let’s see how difficult this line connecting really is. If we were to sign up with France Telecom directly they guarantee over the phone that they can connect us in 24 hours. This means they have technicians available and can quickly resolve any difficulties with the application paperwork. Amazing. Pity they can’t offer that to their competitors.
The only way the customer can be guaranteed some service is to sign up with the monopoly. Well done FT – You’ve proven yourself to truly be in charge. I honestly don’t know why the competitors bother.
Now, I have to say that Government decisions to privatise phone infrastructure are often made with a complete disregard for the state of communications in the future (hopefully other countries will learn from these mistakes). Most of these Governments also then allowed the new private giant to compete on a retail level while controlling the infrastructure. You fools! You have created a monopoly which will haunt you for years to come.
Australia has the exact same problem with Telstra as France does with France Telecom. It’s ridiculous. Telstra has had a little bit of an arse-kicking from Internode, being an ISP competitor with impeccable customer service and penchant for hassling the Government to monitor Telstra and prevent them engaging in anti-competitive behaviour. Free is France’s champion playing the same role as Internode, but they’re not all the way there yet.
This situation in France is widely accepted as “just the way it goes”. I’m willing to bet that over the next 10 years or so things will change. Why? Because all the millennials will finally flee the nest and try to set up their own houses. I can’t imagine these internet-hungry people resting quiet for 6 months while a monopoly deliberately delays the connection of their entire household communications and entertainment. No way! The only reason there’s not already riots about it is that most household owners in France are older and happy to keep their internet usage confined to the workplace.
So, France Telecom, watch out. The millennials are coming and they won’t stand for this.
Edit: We finally got internet at the start of December, just over five months after signing up. Five months!
If you’re reading this article, these links could also be useful to you (not mine, but compiled by me):
