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French operators are blocking calls to Estonian mobile phones
We've noticed that Orange France is blocking calls to our Estonian company number. In fact, the trouble affects many more people in Estonia.
Some (all?) users of Free Mobile (using a part of the Orange network) and Altice (SFR) can not reach us either. After running a test of the AirBaltic SIM card (that provides an Estonian phone number), we've found out that calls to its number are also blocked. And a French expatriate in Estonia, a Tellia operator's customer, told us he likewise can not be reached by his relatives based in France. In fact, all of these operators, unreachable from France, use the EMT network. However, when it comes to the communication in opposite direction, from Estonia to France, no trouble seem to occur.
We brought the problem to the Orange France's attention. The company claimed not to be the source of the trouble, saying SFR and Bouygues suffer just the same and advising us to contact the Authority for the Regulation of Electronic Communication and Postal Services (Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques et des Postes, or Arcep). We got in touch with Arcep and were told that there is nothing they could do and then sent back to the Orange operator's customer service department. We were even suggested to sue the company ourselves. A perfect example of how things work in France?
Free and SFR (Altice) have not yet responded to us, neither did Tellia. But Travel Sim, an Estonian mobile platform used mainly by frequently travelling people, explained to us: "We are aware of the issue with Orange France. Orange has blocked all Estonia number ranges. SFR has problems calling to +37253 and Bouygues to +37281 number ranges only. We are trying to negotiate these issues with operators, but it is entirely their decision whether to keep number ranges blocked or not. We have tested calls from Free Mobile and found some issues, we will contact Free Mobile and ask them to check it."
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