Orange is in the crosshairs of the mayors of La Roche-sur-Yon and Les Sables d’Olonne. Luc Bouard and Yannick Moreau have just sent an open letter to ARCEP, the telecoms regulatory authority, asking it to intervene with the operator so that it keeps its commitments. “More than an SMS, it’s an SOS” write the 2 elected officials who consider that the commitments made by Orange in 2015 for a total deployment of fiber in the 2 agglomerations at the end of 2022 is not kept.
“Far from the 100% promised in 2020, only 77.3% of premises (42,224) can be connected in 2022 compared to the actual housing base in Les Sables d’Olonne Agglomeration and only 70.7% of the 59,701 premises (42 208) on the territory of the agglomeration of La Roche-sur-Yon” write the 2 elected officials who ask that all of their agglomerations be covered by the end of the year.
We have noted a growth of more than 30% in the housing stock since 2014 in these two cities. Alain the Coz
At the house of Orange we understand the impatience but these delays can be explained Alain LeCoz director at Orange of relations with the local authorities of Vendée: “We have a contractual commitment based on the Insee 2014 database, and in these two cities we will be there on the number of housing units to be fiberized and connected. But these two agglomerations are very dynamic territories in terms of new housing and activity areas for companies, and we have noted a growth of more than 30% in the housing stock since 2014, which is enormous (…) We continue to work with our partners, we have no timetable to say when we will finish but the objective is to be 100% connectable in these 2 agglomerations“.
But the arguments of the operator are not admissible in the eyes of Mathieu Sorindirector general of services to the agglomeration of Les Sables d’Olonne: “Orange’s first commitment was to deploy all housing units by the end of 2020 on the Insee 2014 database, and even if the number of housing units has indeed exploded, they have not respected this commitment (…) They also told us that they were unable to give a deployment schedule for the remaining 20%, and that is unacceptable”.
In their open letter Luc Bouard and Yannick Moreau ask ARCEP to demand late penalties from Orange, allowing them to connect the fiber with another operator. But it wouldn’t be easy admits Mathieu Sorin: “Orange has deployed the entire main framework in the agglomeration and therefore we will depend on Orange’s good will to finish the remaining 20%”.