At a time when the situation is deteriorating in some places, the connection problems of households in France are currently more than ever in the crosshairs of Arcep but also of Avicca. Today 26 communities are smoking. According to them, the operators must act quickly by respecting the contracts and by implementing two new actions.
Bad connections, rushed interventions, aggravated subcontracting… So many topics including Laure de La Raudière, chairman of the regulator heard too often for months† The French and the communities involved call him regularly †and this, rightly so because it is unacceptable to have quality defects in the practices of the operators as one finds them today“hammered them” last week.
It is now urgent to solve these problems: “I can’t bear to hear that it is linked to strong commitment and strong connection. Tell that to people who are interrupted for a few weeks several times a year…‘ she even offered.
After have recently resigned on the intensified uberization of the sector and the impossibility for companies in the sector to achieve this “the smallest margin by carrying out the connection work in accordance with both the rules of the art and the safety rulesAvicca, the association that unites local authorities involved in digital technology, is back in the game. No fewer than 26 affiliated communities announce in a press release that they are joining forces to encourage operators to react.
Their frustration concerns “a multiplication of degradations” in terms of subscriber connections to newly built networks in less densely populated areas, especially those where they are testing the deployment of these infrastructures.
“This situation, about which we again warn the government, is mainly related to the implementation method of the final connection imposed by Bouygues Télécom, Free, Orange and SFR: the “STOC mode”.
After all, these internet access providers ensure the connection of their subscribers by carrying out all technical operations themselves. In reality they are completely outsourced without control, poorly paid and for some performed despite the rules of the art and the safety of people”they complain.
However, in early 2021, a new national contract (STOC V2 contract) was signed between the operators to better regulate these practices. “A year later we have to conclude that the situation on our networks is not improving. On average over the past six months, 85% of intervention reports sent at the end of each connection are unusable,” the communities confirm. Not only that, their networks continue to deteriorate on a daily basis, “technical cabinet doors forced or broken off, junction boxes left open in the rain, customers disconnected, poor subscriber craftsmanship”† In short, consternation, according to them the Arcep action plan is not being respected, “the repairs are not carried out by the operators, the field checks are impossible due to lack of communication of the intervention schedules subcontractors”.
Operators urged to urgently respect contracts and introduce two new measures
In this regard, the 26 local authorities, including numerous public initiative networks such as Anjou Numérique, ADSN, Charente Numérique, Essone Numérique la Fiber 64 or even the Grand Est region and the Seine-Saint-Denis department, are asking for operatorss †respect the existing contracts and carry out two complementary actions that are essential for the proper realization of the subscriber connections”† The first is to “provide the intervention schedules of the subcontractors to be able to ensure compliance with the safety rules applied by the parties responsible for the connection and to control the connection times.” And the second, “make payment to the connection service manager conditional on the sending of a complete and usable intervention report, which guarantees the verification of the conformity of the connection.”
If the operators do not meet these two points, “We reserve the right to take any measure capable of substantially and sustainably improving our ability to significantly and sustainably maintain the public interest integrity of the new fiber optic networks in our areas. † The message has arrived.
