We're currently on our summer sojourn in France (effinell it's hot - but that's another story). Only been here for a week and a day when yesterday morning just before lunch our internet connection went tits-up. This is by no means the first time we've lost internet (and with it phone) and every time it's been a mission to get the fault sorted. This time I thought I'd try the on-line chat using my phone.
The chap who came on didn't speak English so I was forced to try to chat using the titchy phone keyboard and battling autocorrect constantly trying to change words into something it recognised in English. Anyway, he said he could see that there was a break in the line 300m from the exchange and he would raise a repair ticket for it. He hoped that they would get onto it in 48 hours or less. But, in the meantime, he would arrange for a "pocket box" to be made available for me at my local SFR shop. This little box simply logs into the 3G or 4G network and broadcasts a wifi signal.
Long (very long) story short I've got it up and running and here is the magnificent result.
I didn't think it was possible to get a worse result than the landline but they've proved that they can.