Orange illustration. – SYSPEO / SIPA
Several Orange unions point to Thursday the “loss of control” or the “weakening” of the telephone operator’s networks, after the failure which prevented access to emergency numbers throughout France and could have resulted, indirectly, the death of three people.
For the CGT of postal and telecommunications activities (CGT FAPT) “this major unavailability follows a resurgence of more localized incidents of the same type. In Oise, Haute-Savoie or Narbonne, these events had recently impacted the emergency services, ”explains the union in a press release.
“A failing industrial policy”
“In Brittany, a blackout had also cut off copper telephone access to a large part of the region,” he adds without specifying the date of this blackout. For this union, the origin of the incident can be explained by “a failing industrial policy” which led to “the loss of control of the networks”, and which “will be accentuated with the current Orange strategic plan”.
The CGT FAPT denounces en bloc “a chronic underinvestment in the networks”, a “deadly employment policy and losses of know-how which lengthen the recovery times”, “time requirements which eliminate the tests in upstream ”as well as“ the massive transfer of activities to builders and to offshore subcontracting which increasingly accentuate the loss of control over our infrastructures ”.
“The State has a good back today to take offense (…) while as the first shareholder it has always validated Orange’s savings plans for 20 years and encouraged a policy of strong dividends as is the case again in 2021 ”, protests the union.
“Much less breakdowns than 20 or 30 years ago”
For Sébastien Crozier, of the CFE-CGC (Orange’s first union), “technology, increasingly sophisticated, paradoxically makes us more and more fragile with more and more players, of sophistication at all levels. “.
“This incident highlights the fragility of networks and at the same time the essential character of telecom infrastructures which are not products but a service to the nation. The slightest incident can have very serious consequences, however the telephone has always saved lives! He said. Pierre Vars, from Unsa, underlines that despite all the criticisms, “there are far fewer breakdowns today than 20 or 30 years ago”.
“We have made a huge technological leap that comes with great reliability; during the crisis (covid) we installed VPN (bypass software) urgently to secure the teleworking of millions of employees but today the slightest breakdown is no longer accepted. The paradox is that it is very reliable, very sharp, but when there is a failure, it can have a great impact, ”he admits.