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What is the average number of pupils in a French state school class – and how does it compare with the UK and US?
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Is there a start-stop internet service for second homes in France?
We look at the options for people who only spend a few weeks at a time in France and want to avoid paying for a year-long connection
Reader question: Is there an internet supplier which offers a start-stop-start-stop service? We currently pay €35 a month 12 months a year but only spend about 14 weeks/year at our second home in France.
If you have a second home in France, there are several ways in which you can avoid paying for your internet connection all year round.
Firstly, if you have a phone contract with a generous data allowance and you will only be at the second home for a couple of weeks at a time, you could hotspot your devices so that laptops, tablets etc. can connect to the internet.
However, if you are using a UK phone contract in France, it is worth noting your provider’s ‘fair usage policy’, to avoid using too many gigabytes of data and incurring additional charges while roaming abroad.
Read more: What is the ‘fair usage’ limit for UK phones being used in France?
Secondly, there is the option of an internet box plan, some of which can be cancelled at any time.
For example, Sosh allows you to cancel your supply from its Boîte Sosh without getting to the end of a contract, as does Red by SFR with its Red Box.
However, you will normally have to send the box back and perhaps pay cancellation fees and/or repay the cost of setting up the connection, depending on how long you have had the device.
A third idea is to get a 4G stick from Orange which for a set fee will provide you with 10GB of data and can be used across 10 devices over one month. The clé 4G can then be recharged when needed.
Orange also has ‘Let’s Go’ tariffs providing varying amounts of data, which are rolling but can be cancelled at any time without fees.
SFR’s Internet Partout service enables customers to connect up to 32 devices to the internet and then pay €3 per day when the box is being used.
Bouygues also has a Hotspot 4G offer, which involves different data plans that can be cancelled at any time.
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