Originally Posted by MaggieL

That's the French for you! Nothing's ever simple. I have a French bank account but have never needed a French credit card before. Can you tell me if Skype FaceTime work? I'll let you know how it goes.
Maggie

Hi, I live in the south of france and can confirm that both Skype and FaceTime work ok - usual issues of high traffic at weekends, otherwise ok. Don't expect any telecoms company to be any different, that part of globalisation they have embraced fully! The ideas about customer service - not so much! On the upside is their life/work balance, something they cherish. Slavish obedience to the mindless work ethic of the northern hemisphere is still not universally popular. If you have a French bank account I advise you keep an eye on it, as you maybe accumulating charges from just sitting there! This the French bankers have turned into an art form. They make some of the others look honest! At least they did not gamble as much as the others in the casino part of the banks.

Free.fr includes pretty well unlimited calls to France and the rest of Europe and to mobiles in the US and 3gb of data for €19.99 per month with a one month contract. I t allows me to use my iPhone as a wifi hotspot so no need for a 3G iPad for me

After successfully using a neighbour's wifi for face timing I've had an Internet connection fitted in our holiday home, same provider, same exchange and only 50 yards apart. FaceTime works perfectly at the neighbour's but constantly freezes at ours. I've tried the signal strength at both houses and ours is slightly stronger. Orange France were no help at all with this issue and said it must be "high traffic" . How can the traffic be so different within the space of 50 yards? Can anybody help please? This is really frustrating!