Fri, 19 March 2010
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Basil Howitt reports on the disastrous installation in his remote village in the Languedoc-Roussillon of France Telecom’s so-called "high-speed" WiFi Internet service.VILLAGERS GET STROPPY
Moi: "Cette affaire WiFi est une pagaille."
Choeur des villageois: "Non Basil! C’est un bordel!"
(Me: "This WiFi business is a shambles."
Chorus of villagers: "No Basil! It’s a complete cock-up!"
On a Saturday afternoon in Lansac in late November 2006, the brilliant sunshine was hot enough for our fair-skinned visitor from England to have to apply her sun cream.
The picturesque village of Lansac
However, my wife Clare and I had to sacrifice the sun for an hour. As the cacophony of guns and howling dogs signified the manic post-prandial pursuit of wild boar on the steep hillside above the village, we trooped inside the Mairie (our Village Council building) to attend a very important meeting. Representing 15 households, we were about thirty altogether in number - including several tiny but generally quiescent occupants of buggies and carrycots.
The mayor was in the chair, but the man in the firing line we had come to see was a man I will call Monsieur Bernard Sirac, styled as "Commercial Engineer" in our region for France Télécom – France’s much loathed and joked-about state-owned telecommunications company, reportedly in debt to the tune of 70 billion euros. M. Sirac had come here all the way from Montpellier, causing him a round trip of a good 260 miles and more.
ACCÈS "HAUT DÉBIT"
(HIGH SPEED ACCESS/BROADBAND)
The official intentions had been laudable, though they have been pathetically inadequate in realisation. As part of a local government effort to bring broadband internet access to France’s remotest villages (ours is definitely one of those), the decision had been made by the Conseil Général (the County Council) to subsidise the installation by France Télécom of a wireless system called Pack Surf Wifi into each and every household wishing to get high-speed internet access.
Here's a short introduction to our Banking section for those living in France.
Here's a short introduction to our Where to Live section for France.
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