After the power cut, the network failure? Your smartphone could also be the victim of a giant failure affecting the relay antennas this winter. The sector federation has already sounded the alarm.
The alert went almost unnoticed, between the end of the school holidays and the concerns of the start of the school year. At the beginning of September, the French Telecoms Federation warned of the risk of a general breakdown of the fixed and mobile networks this winter. A collateral effect of power cuts that threaten the country, with growing tensions on the energy markets. The alarm bell was sounded on August 31 in Le Figaro by Liza Bellulo, General Secretary of Bouygues Telecom and President of the Federation (FFTelecoms). According to her, the mobile relays would indeed be among the first impacted in the event of a power cut.
If the authorities exclude any gas cut this winter for households, Elisabeth Borne mentioned in several media, like France inter at the beginning of September, the possibility of cuts for companies. On the electricity side, a “rotating load shedding” is mentioned, “that is to say that we cut, over a short period of less than two hours, by district”, explained the Prime Minister. A procedure which is effectively provided for by RTE (“Electricity transport network”, the manager of the electricity network). These power cuts would also affect the relay antennas in the areas concerned, which, in addition to the power outage, would ultimately deprive the inhabitants of any means of communication, including for emergency calls. However, 95% of these calls would go through these networks according to Liza Bellulo.
Cuts longer than power outages?
A double problem arises for telephone operators and aggravates the situation for telecoms, as the magazine also explained. Capital. On the one hand, the professionals of the sector are unable to equip the relay antennas with generators to compensate for a possible cut, their number (approximately 53,000 on the territory) being too high. On the other hand, restarting an antenna after a cut would prove to be “complex”, as Liza Bellulo told Le Figaro who evokes “several hours” to find optimal service on a 4G or 5G antenna. A device in short too “sensitive” to be stopped so suddenly.
In addition to its stated desire to participate in the national effort for energy sobriety with the acceleration of the deployment of fiber and 5G, deemed to be “less energy-intensive”, the FFTelecoms indicates that discussions have already been initiated with the public authorities and Enedis. The objective: to be able to anticipate any load shedding to limit network disruptions and therefore the impact on individuals. To avoid breakage, one-off reductions in internet speed could also be decided, as during confinements in the year 2020.