Neither fiber nor ADSL can be connected to his home for the moment.
The house is located on a hiking trail, behind the small bridge that spans the Fozières stream, but it nests above all at the end of the absurd. For more than three months, Jean-Pierre Venchiarutti has been living there without internet, without television and without a landline. A Kafkaesque situation between Soumont and Fozières, between Orange and SFR, between ADSL and fiber optics, entangled in the cables of internet service providers and hit by bad weather.
On September 24, 2022, an electric shock damaged the ADSL cable that supplied Jean-Pierre Venchiarutti’s house. “I contacted Orange and its sub-contractor Sogetrel, who informed me that they were no longer working on ADSL, but only on fibre. I then thought of getting connected to fibre, when I found out that my house was not eligible”he says, a thick pocket of documents under his arm.
Not eligible for fiber
On the satellite plans of the network coverage, to be found on various official sites (such as the electronic communications regulatory authority: arcep.fr), the accommodation is quite distinct, but no green dot indicates its possible connection to the fiber. Strange, when it appears that all the houses around, including those on the same path (most of which are in ruins), including that of its nearest neighbor, fifty meters away, are eligible.
It is because Jean-Pierre Venchiuratti’s property, acquired in 2016 and “140 m2 perfectly habitable”he specifies, has the particularity of being located on the territory of Soumont, but far from its dwellings, on the contrary of being in the continuity of the Fozières houses, on the edge of the stream. “I think I was simply forgotten. When making the plans for Fozières, I was not taken into account because the house is on the opposite bank, and on the Soumont side, nobody spotted my house below, evokes the pensioner. I can understand that it is a simple error, but we cannot rectify the situation.”
A 90 meter cable
Alas, while waiting for an internet service provider (Orange or SFR) to agree to undertake the connection and thus apply for eligibility for fiber optics, the Soumontais fall back on ADSL. “It’s a necessity: for the moment, I go regularly to Nîmes, to my daughter’s house, to take advantage of her connection for several hours.”
To solve the problem, the only repair consists of replacing a 90-meter cable along the path to the house. An intervention that Orange does not want, according to him, not to program, considering that the cable is not accessible because of the vegetation. On the embankments where the equipment winds, thickets and thorny trees require longer work and the installation of a nacelle. For Jean-Pierre Venchiarutti, “the provider does not want to waste time for so few subscribers”.
Never mind, the retiree asks the municipality of Fozières to carry out pruning work. Also unsuccessful: “The poles are located in four private properties, relates Michel Combes, mayor of Fozières. I sent registered letters and only one owner answered me.”
On the Soumont side, Mayor Daniel Valette indicates that “This completely crazy story is unfortunately not isolated in the rural world, but in his case, you just have to pull a cable! With a little good will, we should be able to get there…” Following our call, the Orange supplier assured to contact the victim to “understand and try to find a solution”.
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