UFC-Que Choisir shoots down the agreement between Orange and the government

2023-11-30 09:27:00

She wrote a vitriolic post. Marie-Amandine Stévenin, the president of UFC-Que Choisir, did not pop the champagne following the announcement, at the beginning of the month, of an agreement between the government and Orange to ensure the end of the deployment of the fiber. In a Tribune published this Wednesday on the association’s website, it considers that this deal “sorely lacks ambition”.

Marie-Amandine Stévenin deplores that the agreement “anticipates that Orange will connect more than 98.5% of homes to fiber” in medium-sized towns and the outskirts of large cities in the next two years, while the historic operator had committed to doing 100% by the end of 2022. She also criticizes that this same deal predicts that large cities and very densely populated areas will increase, at the same time, from 92% to 96% fiber coverage. In the eyes of the leader of the UFC-Que Choisir, these modalities “enact a virtual renunciation by the government to ensure that all consumers have optical fiber by the end of 2025”in accordance with what Emmanuel Macron promised.

The satellite alternative criticized

In this context, Marie-Amandine Stévenin also criticizes the new very high-speed satellite Internet offer, at 49.99 euros per month, launched by Orange two weeks ago:

“In fact, this offer may have some form of interest only for households that do not have a good wired Internet connection,” she notes. Does this mean that by being less demanding with Orange on fiber optic coverage, the government is also giving it the gift of giving it a “market” to market an expensive satellite offering? »

Very upset, the president of UFC-Que Choisir believes that the executive « would be better to allow all consumers to benefit from a real enforceable right to very high speed”rather than “to negotiate falsely ambitious agreements with Orange”. Jean-Noël Barrot, the Minister Delegate in charge of Telecoms, who was pleased to have negotiated this deal with the operator, will appreciate.