French Telecoms - Keeping In Touch

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 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 contract 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/prélèvement 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 ‘winback’. 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 unfavourably with the 3 cents-perminute charge advertised, and thirdly, the rounding up of 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 known 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 starting 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 providers’ websites and you will see that you will be charged a connection fee of 7.8 cents, so the real cost of the call 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 it is 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 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 phone 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 contracts 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 ‘degroupée’, ‘non-degroupée’ or ‘dégroupage 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 contract 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: www.degrouptest.com www.zoneadsl.com www.dslvalley.com.

• Bob Elliott, UK Telecom Ltd Tel: 0870 750 4002 www.uktelecom.uk.net

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