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

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.

We each received contracts specifying the cost of EUR 63.39 for the installation - the balance of EUR 201 being paid by the Conseil Général. Other specifications included a monthly rental of EUR 25.90 for unlimited access and guaranteed connection speeds ("liaison 512/218 kbs/s"). The contracts had been brokered by our very efficient Mairie.

By early October we each had fixed to our houses an aerial within sight of a large satellite dish erected on the highest building in the village. The aerials were linked by cable to each computer.

The infamous aerial

Running? Well only just. Access, downloading and uploading were infinitely slower than our analogue system already in place by landline (service provider Tiscali/Alice). Nevertheless we remained upbeat and had a router installed from my computer to Clare’s in her office next to mine. Though, rather than get France Télécom to configure my WiFi connection to her pc we enlisted the kind help of a neighbour who had hers up and running in less than half an hour.

RAS LE BOL!
(ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!)

Frustration mounted throughout the village. Every morning in the bread queue (we have fresh bread delivered 6 days a week) we kept comparing download speeds.

"Last night I was down to 3 kb/s."
"Yesterday afternoon I was cut off for an hour."
"This morning I was listening to the radio and had to give up."

Worst of all, we all frequently were landed with this infuriating notice when we tried to access a website: "THE PAGE CANNOT BE DISPLAYED. THE PAGE YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE"; or when we tried to send an email: "THE HOST ‘POP.PACKSURFWIFI.COM’ COULD NOT BE FOUND".

THAT DAMNED CABLE!

To cap it all, France Télécom had left a thick extension or router cable that dangles and swings over our own terrace in the violent winds of the Tramontaine. The cable runs from the aerial on the adjoining roof of the Mairie to the village satellite. One Friday afternoon, no doubt, France Télécom’s "engineers" couldn’t be bothered to attach it properly to the Mairie’s roof.

ACTION!

Thanks to the co-ordinating efforts of our two new village counsellors (young and go-ahead women), we each sent a log of our speeds to the unfortunate already-mentioned M. Sirac.

To ram the point home our fine Monsieur le Maire has written to this effect not only to the Regional Director of France Télécom, but also to the President of the Conseil General, the Préfet (Chief of the "Auxiliary" Police), and to the Association des Maires. Voilà!

After the meeting France Télécom did tried to wriggle out of the issue by blaming the "inherent" faultiness of the main satellite in outer space. But the mayor was having none of that. He argued forcefully that whilst there were problems here and in other remote villages (Fosse and St Martin among them) the system worked perfectly well elsewhere. If the satellite itself was to blame then no village would have good wireless contact.

Watch this space! And meanwhile three cheers for the French system of Mairies. There is nothing remotely equivalent in the UK to look after the detailed interests of residents in very small communities.

_______________________

March 2007

Copyright Expatica

Subject: Living in France, France Telecom, Internet access