deprived of telephone and Internet for three months after being “disconnected” from fiber

This is far from an isolated case. Even if Haute-Garonne Digital ensures that less than 5% of fiber optic connections encounter technical problems. For three months, Anthonya resident of the rue de l'Estanquettein Caraman, is fighting to be connected to fiber. A service to which he had access for almost a year before being “unplugged” during an intervention by a technician who came to connect one of his neighbors. “I'm not the only one this happened to. In the street, residents are on alert. As soon as an operator's truck appears, everyone has a knife between their teeth “, he jokes. Although he keeps smiling, the Caramanese is no less exhausted by a situation which has the consequence to deprive him of telephone and Internet even though he lives in zone blanche and that he knows health problems.

Since October 18, the Caramanese has been trying by all means, but to date in vain, to be able to benefit from fiber again. “Before my line was crushed, I was at SFR. I did everything to get them to reconnect me, but they told me there was nothing they could do. As things weren't progressing, I went to Orange on November 16, thinking that it might be easier. They told me at that time that it would be resolved in 15 days. It's the beginning of January and I'm at the same point “, he complains.

“I spend my time on the phone”

In the space of three months, Anthony no longer counts the long minutes spent on the phonewhether with Fiber 31 or its operator. “They gave me appointments, I took time off to be present, which represents a loss of income for me, so that in the end they do not come or they are not able to resolve the problem. I was then told that the problem came from Fiber 31. Then Orange told me that it was resolved on December 27, without being able to give me an appointment date. To explain to me at the beginning of January that Fiber 31 had ultimately not resolved the problem and that an expertise was needed which would certainly take place at the end of January. I spend my time on the phone. It's enough to drive you crazy! », Testifies Anthony.

Today, this resident of Caraman shows his anger. “We are walking on our heads. They explain to me that I am a priority profile because I am in a white zone and I have health concerns. But nothing is progressing yet. And it's been going on for almost three months. Today, I have almost no network with my mobile. I don't have a printer because it's on Wi-Fi, which is a real problem because I have a lot of photocopies of medical exams to take out. This is a very disabling situation and one that causes me concern. », specifies the resident of rue de l’Estanquette.

Orange and Fiber 31 pass the responsibility on to each other

Questioned about this file, the union Haute-Garonne Digital ensures that its service provider Fibre 31 has made the necessary adjustments since December 27 and specifies that the operator can now intervene to carry out the connection.

For his part, Orangewhich we also invited to react, specified this Monday, January 13 that it is awaiting a response from Fiber 31 to carry out a joint expertise on the connection point. “ It seems like they are passing the buck. And in the meantime, it’s me who suffers the situation,” comments Anthony. It's hard to prove him wrong. Especially since this Monday, January 21, the situation had still not evolved, despite a new promise of a “very quick meeting” to come a few days earlier.

Why are subscribers “disconnected” in this way?

Anthony's case does not seem rare, as demonstrated by numerous testimonies received in recent months from the editorial office of Voice of Midi Lauragais who herself was confronted with a crushing his line at its premises located in Villefranche-de-Lauragais. Haute-Garonne Numérique explains that this scenario may result from different issues.

“These are things that we are actually seeing, even if given the volume of connections that are happening without problems, we are dealing with a fairly small number of cases. These disconnections may be linked to network misuse from the people who intervene for the operators, to a undersizing of certain optical connection pointsbut also sometimes to addressing problems or even to malicious acts. We filed another complaint very recently, precisely in Caraman,” explains François Briançon of Haute-Garonne Numérique.

An effect of demographic growth

In the case of saturation of the optical connection point (PBO), the union specifies that its service provider, Fiber 31, generally intervenes in a maximum period of one month to do the necessary work. “These are problems often linked to the demographic surge. There may have been a poor assessment at the start, when the deployment was launched. So if we are a little fair, we take stock of the PBO. At the end of this audit, we take the necessary measures and we resize if necessary. It is the life of the network which is always in motion», recalls François Briançon.

An observation shared by Laurence Langon the Orange side. The community relations manager, however, wants to remain optimistic: “When we see the volume of fiber connections, the problem still remains measured. Everything is not perfect but we are in a period of transition, that's normal. Fiber 31 carried out a major action plan on the optical connection points which were undersized . For our part, as an operator, we have a classic process which consists of issuing a ticket to alert when we detect an optical path problem. We report the information and if we remain on a failure of the connection we can launch a joint expertisethe cost of which will be borne by the party in default. » A situation faced by Anthony in Caraman today.

The Orange representative therefore invites those who may be faced with this type of problem to “not abandon” their efforts to obtain a connection to the fiber networkin view of the upcoming closure of the copper network.

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