when the dream of very high speed turns into a nightmare in Val-d'Oise

From dream to nightmare. Fiber, much faster than ADSL, was encouraged by the State. But in recent years, dysfunctions have multiplied, creating more and more discontent, in many areas, including Val-d'Oise and in particular Parisis.

Last September, faced with repeated breakdowns, Cadre de vie Frettois sounded the alarm through a letter to Arcep (Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications, Posts and Press Distribution), the “policeman » of Telecoms. “Fiber at La Frette, a dream turned into hell! » explained the association after carrying out its investigation: out of 92 Frettois who responded, 73 complained of dysfunction.

“Despite requests for intervention from their operators, many Fretto residents find themselves destitute and suffer from dysfunctions which sometimes put them in danger: isolation of elderly people and/or people with reduced mobility finding themselves without remote assistance, without television and without telephone. Difficulty or even impossibility of working from home or teleworking. Weeks and sometimes even months without a reliable connection, without television, without a landline telephone…”

Contacted by the association, Arcep referred the problem to XP fiber, which installed the fiber network in part of Parisis on behalf of the State. What annoys the association:

“The operators and the network manager constantly pass the responsibility for malfunctions to each other.”

Régine, a Bouygues Télécom customer based in Herblay-sur-Seine (Val-d'Oise), contacted us in recent days after a collective outage that occurred on December 5 in her residence to tell us of her exasperation. Announced return to service date: December 23 then… February 4. “No worries, you will be partially compensated on your next bill for the duration of your incident,” announces the operator.

Mobilized elected officials

“Despite numerous calls, no explanation. This situation becomes difficult to bear. In my co-ownership (16 bis, avenue Foch), out of 36 co-owners, those with Free and Bouygues as operators are all impacted; those who had Orange as their operator were repaired last week. ADSL customers were spared. »

According to Régine, the city center of Herblay is also “regularly affected”.

“A week ago, a friend was unable to obtain her medication, as the pharmacist was unable to deliver them to her due to the lack of a network. A merchant put a sign on his window to inform him that he could no longer accept the credit card. We contact Bouygues regularly but the answers are vague… We are told that we benefit from a 4G key free of charge and that we have nothing to complain about! »

The problem is not new. Two years ago, an opposition elected official, Nathalie Chauffour, spoke in the municipal council.

“I have neighbors who have been without Internet and telephone for more than three months, including an elderly person who is worried. There is really a problem with fiber.”

“It’s a subject I’ve known about for a long time. If this was the responsibility of the cities, I would have levers for action,” replied the mayor (Lr), Philippe Rouleau.

It is Arcep which ensures regulation on behalf of the State, which had in its time entrusted the deployment of fiber throughout the territory to Orange and Sfr.

In Herblay and part of Val Parisis, the State chose Sfr (now XP Fiber). The cabinets are therefore “under the responsibility of Sfr, but they are open to all telephone operators”.

Problem: operators often call on subcontractors “who, in certain cases, have rogue methods, since they go so far as to disconnect subscribers to connect their own”, denounced the mayor, who had threatened to take Arcep to court.

Régine wrote to the town hall. The mayor's office replied that the municipality

“has mobilized its services (…) We perfectly understand that this situation could be problematic. Aware of the difficulties encountered, the mayor has decided to list the requests in order to relay your concerns, which are also his, to the operators. In this context, he organized an assembly during which he directly challenged them to remind them of their responsibilities. »

The deputy (Grs) of the constituency, Emmanuel Maurel, was also contacted. He replied that he is

“unfortunately, contacted daily for similar problems in Val-d'Oise. I must admit to you that I am a victim of this myself, and I am well aware of the inconvenience that this degradation produces. I propose to write to your operator, at least to protest and try to speed up the repair work.”

The parliamentarian wrote to the deputy general director of Bouygues Télécom in charge of computer systems and networks. The elected official underlines that this problem particularly affects “elderly or vulnerable people with connected health alarm devices” and that “the 4G key does little to alleviate it, which does not cover all the functionalities of the building , particularly security systems and fixed telephone lines.

In October 2023, Cécile Rilhac, then a deputy (app. Renaissance), organized a large public meeting in Pierrelaye bringing together operators, Arcep, XP Fiber, the mayors of Parisis and users… Faced with dissatisfied users and elected officials, all defended themselves… without convincing.

Everyone knows the situation: cabinets open to all winds, damaged, where wires get tangled, subcontractors who disconnect subscribers for other subscribers. “Fiber was supposed to be the miracle cure, it turned out to be an ordeal due in particular to the cascade of subcontractors,” summed up one unhappy person.

Resumption of fiber cabinets

During the meeting, XP Fiber announced a recovery program for twenty cabinets, in Cormeilles-en-Parisis, Herblay-sur-Seine, Montigny-lès-Cormeilles, Pierrelaye. Would it therefore have been of no use?

At the end of the meeting, Yannick Boëdec, president (Lr) of the Val Parisis agglomeration, vice-president of the Departmental Council and mayor of Cormeilles-en-Parisis, confided his disenchantment:

“I ask the question, what is Arcep for? I wrote letters, I never got a response. Once, an intern called me back. I am in the process of instructing my legal department to initiate legal proceedings, because if the operators do not do the job, it is because the State does not do it either. In Cormeilles, some people have not had the Internet for 18 months. We are 12 km from Paris! You are fully aware and everyone is passing the buck. For six years, it hasn’t worked and the impression I have is that no one cares.”

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