Even on vacation, the French remain addicted to their smartphone. At the beach, on a hike or in a camping tent, you never stop surfing the Internet or texting your loved ones. And in some very touristy regions, operators have to deal with an influx of vacationers which can cause traffic jams on the networks.

DECRYPTION

Send a photo of his swimming pool to anger his friends, tell his grandmother about his visits for an hour on the phone, post "stories" on social networks… It is now the routine of connected holidaymakers. But you still have to have a network to do all that! 4G is sometimes as coveted as coolness in the summer, especially in tourist sites that are not always well covered. And in summer, with the massive influx of tourists in some regions, the networks are sticking their tongue out a bit. A recurring phenomenon which operators are tackling as best they can.

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Summer doesn't rhyme with offline

All the operators agree on one point: despite the Covid-19, the summer of 2020 is within the expected range in terms of demand from the internet and mobile networks. Neither more nor less tense than last year, proof that French tourists are making up for the absence of foreigners. But expected does not mean simple and operators all agree: summer is a complicated period. In some municipalities, the population is multiplied by three, five or even ten in a few days. And between the crazy “Instagrammers”, those who cannot do without the GPS while hiking and those who do not let go of Netflix even at the campsite, the overload quickly arrived.

We are not talking about breakdowns or blackouts of course, but rather small slowdowns here and there ... The operators minimize but it must be said: it quickly becomes annoying when you cannot even call someone, even when 4G or wifi. It's annoying but it's inevitable, recognizes Nicolas Drouillet, Grand Sud Est networks director at Orange: "Our networks are designed and sized to absorb extremely large flows. After that, there is necessarily a capacity limit on a network. Occasionally and temporarily, this limit can be crossed, "he admits.

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Result, even if Orange is now able to say that it covers 99% of the population with 4G and 97% of municipalities with less than 30,000 inhabitants, this does not mean that the performance of the network is still up to par. customer expectations. This was the case at the start of the confinement: teleworking suddenly imposed on millions of French people, coupled with the explosion in demand for Netflix-type streaming services, led to slowdowns on the Internet, fixed and mobile networks. for a few days, while the operators adjust.

Analyze the data and pray for the weather

To limit snags and absorb sudden influxes of phones and computers into specific areas, operators are using phone data. When we move, we "bound" every time we connect to a cell tower. This generates masses of anonymized data that Bouygues, SFR and others analyze to determine traffic and network tension on tourist sites every summer. They then derive forecasts and, if necessary, increase the capacity of the network for the following summer. "We know that the volume of data exchanged increases by 40% each year with the evolution of uses, so we increase the capacity of the network every year as a result", assures Nicolas Drouillet, of Orange.

But all these forecasts do not prevent glitches, especially due to the vagaries of the weather. "The heat wave can have an impact on the electronic equipment located in the technical cabinets. They are ventilated and designed to withstand high temperatures. But they can overheat and it happens that we have breakdowns", explains Fabrice Levillain, regional director of Grand Ouest network at Bouygues Télécom. The islands, in particular, are very exposed to the vagaries of the sky. "The terrestrial antennas which connect the sites of the island and the continent are aligned one in front of the other. In the event of wind, they can 'shift away', to shift", specifies Fabrice Levillain. In this case, the transmission slows down and it is the traffic jam to post his vacation photos.

4G climbs the mountains

To route the network as best they can to holidaymakers, the operators carry out work throughout the year. "There is a whole long-term job: we convert our 3G antennas to 4G, we update them regularly with the latest 4G technologies and we set up new sites", lists Nicolas Drouillet, from Orange. This allows operators to gradually cover even the most isolated tourist spots. Orange recently covered the Vallée Blanche, above Chamonix. We are therefore at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters, but the 800,000 tourists who take the cable car to the Aiguille du Midi each year are now connected by 4G to the summit.

And then there are additional solutions such as mobile antennas. "These are antennas installed in a truck. Everything is in it, you just have to plug it into the electric current to offer a complementary site", explains Fabrice Levillain, of Bouygues Telecom. Usually these trucks are used for festivals. But they can also help out overcrowded seaside resorts. "Mobile antennas are installed relatively quickly but the factor that limits their use is that they must then be connected to the heart of the network which must therefore not be too far away", qualifies Nicolas Drouillet, however.