What is known about Orange service outages this week in France

Orange customers have experienced multiple network disruptions this week as the operator was affected by two outages within three days. 

The first took place on Monday, June 29, when Orange reported a technical problem affecting part of its mobile network. The operator said the disruption impacted 4G, 5G, roaming and some services for business customers, in a post published on X. 

Downdetector, which tracks online service outages, recorded more than 1,600 user reports on Monday morning alone, reports France Info.

Orange said its technical teams were "fully mobilised to analyse the situation and restore service as quickly as possible," later announcing in a separate post that the situation had returned to normal around 11:00. The company added that customers experienced intermittent connectivity issues and not a complete interruption of service. 

Orange also said the two service disruptions were not caused by the same problem, claiming that the first outage was “of a different nature” to the second.    

Second outage on Wednesday

However, just two days later, on July 1, Orange experienced another network disruption, prompting new reports from customers a little after 8:00. 

The operator said it was a malfunction that temporarily caused the disruption between 8:15 and 9:30, affecting mobile calls. 

It highlighted, though, that the incident had been resolved and said that it was not the result of a cyberattack but provided no further details, according to France Info.

Customer frustration 

The repeated disruptions prompted frustration among users on social media, with some calling for compensation and expressing concern about the impact on work and daily communication. 

Some posts also implied that the service disruptions had been going on before the June 29 confirmed outage. 

One customer wrote: “I really hope for compensation because paying for very little network (or even no signal?) since Saturday is starting to go on for too long… I’m going to change operator if it keeps going like this.”

Another user criticised the impact on communication and access to emergency services, writing: 

"Great Orange! We can’t make calls anymore because the lines are down, some people work using their phones, including me, this is really serious! And how are people in danger supposed to contact emergency services? We can’t even reach your customer service, well done!"