Never had the application been so much in demand. “I alert Arcep”, the tool created in 2017 by the Electronic Communications and Postal Regulatory Authority to allow subscribers of telecom operators to report a malfunction received 38,060 alerts in 2021, i.e. 14% of more than in 2020. The regulator is struggling to distinguish in the success of its application what amounts to the growing notoriety of its application and the real deterioration of relations between consumers and operators. But the surge in the figure demonstrates the extreme sensitivity of the subject in this sector.
“Consumer empowerment” through this type of tool should enable him to “become a full regulatory partner”, explained Maya Bacache, member of the Arcep college, during the presentation on May 11 of the figures of “I alert Arcep” and the Observatory of customer satisfaction 2021, the realization of which was entrusted by the regulator at CSA Institute. The latter shows a slight improvement in the rating assigned by subscribers to each of the four main operators (Bouygues Telecom, Free, Orange and SFR), with ratings ranging between 7.2 out of 10 for SFR and 7.9 for Free and Orange. . Bouygues Telecom is in the middle with 7.5 out of 10. In 2020, the range extended between 7.1 and 7.7 out of 10, with an almost identical podium: Free was then second behind Orange, SFR was already last.
Poor quality of fixed networks
But looking in detail, the major telecoms black spot is obvious: fiber optics. While it is falling in the mobile sector for all operators, except for Bouygues Telecom, the number of alerts received by Arcep in the fixed sector is progressing unanimously. It even reached a peak of 89 reports for 100,000 users at Free (owned by Xavier Niel, individual shareholder of the Monde), 28 more than for Bouygues Telecom, the best student in the fixed sector. Inconvenience confirmed by the Customer Satisfaction Observatory: according to it, 51% of users report having a problem with their Internet service provider.
The problem does not date from 2021 and “Arcep has taken over for a few years” of the subject of the poor quality of fixed networks, assures Laure de la Raudière, the president of the authority, in a mixture of optimism and fatigue. Since 2020, the regulator has put all operators around the same table. But the effect of these meetings, which follow one another every six weeks, is struggling to materialize on the ground. “We don’t see any improvement”souffle Mme de la Raudière who recognizes, however, that the “new tools announced” in recent months by industry players “not yet in place”. “The pressure we are putting on the operators on this subject does not weaken and will not weaken”she promises.
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