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4G key associated with an SFR box

Krijoi Posted messages 1 Status Member -  
brupala Posted messages 111154 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   -

Hello

I have an SFR box (not fiber) in the mountains, but the line frequently drops (wind, thunderstorms, etc.) and I would like to know if I can install a 4G dongle that would automatically switch over to avoid these outages.

Perhaps there is another way to solve this problem and ensure the continuity of my connection.

I hope I was clear enough in my request?

Thanks in advance

2 answers

  1. didi
     

    Hello

    2 links: one for the complete SFR offer, the other for the SFR 4G offer only. The "usual" cases.

    For now, I don't really see the hoped-for "mix," but I know that in case of technical difficulties, all ISPs try to adapt solutions to maintain the connection, sometimes with 4G.

    I think we need to contact them and negotiate "the best we can" with them, because 4G is always charged per GB consumed and it can add up quickly on the bills.

    Also, see what can be done locally for the "falling cables," as isolated localities are sometimes supported by regions or the state. We need to get help and band together for negotiation with the ISPs, and not go in alone facing a salesperson as a solitary client.

    It's easier when an entire valley comes to complain about the discontinuity of the connection; there is a law that was passed not long ago on this subject, it seems to me. It would be worth researching exactly what the "right to internet" is and what that implies for ISPs.

    https://www.sfr.fr/offre-internet

    https://www.sfr.fr/offre-internet/internet-partout

    For now, I only find the article for those who can no longer pay their bills, but it was in 2016, just the beginning of the notion of the "fundamental right to digital in France," they continue to legislate regularly in this direction and I don't follow the laws closely enough.

    https://www.bfmtv.com/tech/vie-numerique/loi-numerique-internet-devient-enfin-un-droit-fondamental-en-france_AN-201609290048.html

    In the region, here is an example currently in Yonne for 4G; it was in 2018, so things are already happening.

    https://www.lyonne.fr/auxerre-89000/actualites/rcube-le-reseau-hertzien-qui-connecte-au-tres-haut-debit-les-territoires-ruraux-de-l-yonne_12976256/

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    1. brucine Posted messages 24924 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   4 180
       

      Hello,

      In case of a Box failure or a disruption of the connection, it may happen that the ISP offers a 4G key as a temporary solution, but to my knowledge, there is no preventive provision of such a key and even less of an automatic switch.

      The digital divide has even less to do with it since we cannot accelerate the promised deployment of fiber everywhere and in any case, if it is aerial, it will not change anything about climate hazards.

      I lived for a few years along a rural path where several times, when the farmer had had one drink too many—which was not unusual—he would pass by with his tractor, harrow raised, and take down the line.

      The operator did their job and involved the network manager (Orange in all cases), but by the time this was transmitted, and considering the goodwill of Orange or its subcontractors, especially if the intervention required special means (collapsed poles or the need for a lift to reconnect the wires), it always took at best several weeks: no amount of petitioning or negotiation would reduce these delays, except perhaps in the case where major works that had become necessary were not undertaken within a reasonable timeframe.

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      1. brucine Posted messages 24924 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   4 180 > brucine Posted messages 24924 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention  
         

        The preventive acquisition of a backup 4G equipment has a significant cost, whether it's renting or buying the equipment and subscribing to a plan, making it hardly feasible.

        To top it all off, in the example I mentioned (despite being 2 km from a town of over 20,000 inhabitants, which is itself 30 km from Paris), the mobile connection was zero G, no reception; even if the reception quality in isolated areas is not zero but weak, it's not guaranteed that it will be 4G, and then the problem becomes unsolvable, backup equipment or not.

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      2. didi > brucine Posted messages 24924 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention  
         

        Hello

        We must acknowledge that the rural divide is indeed there; even if we try to consider everything that exists, it still costs a lot more in certain places.

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      3. brucine Posted messages 24924 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   4 180 > didi
         

        Of course, but in the case of weather events or vandalism (it's a "trendy" topic), the problem is the same in rural or urban areas, except that in the latter case the network, at least in city centers, is often buried and therefore less vulnerable unless copper cables are stolen (that's also trendy).

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  2. brupala Posted messages 111154 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   14 450
     

    Hello,

    the automatic switchover is possible, but it requires a compatible router; basic boxes don’t do that.

    If you’re wealthy, you also have options like Starlink, often used as a backup by professionals.

    And there you go ....

    But damn, those line breaks are so annoying !!

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