Website Availability in France
Submarine cables, ISP health and blocking risks that decide whether a website loads in France. Checked against live measurement data.
Wondering whether a website is down for everyone or just unreachable from France? The answer usually hides in the physical layer of the internet. France 🇫🇷 connects to the global network through 34 submarine cable systems that come ashore at 27 landing stations, and its national domain zone is .fr. Every request from a user in France to a foreign server, and every request from abroad to a site hosted in France, physically travels over these systems or their terrestrial backhaul.
This page summarizes what our measurement network knows about internet connectivity in France: which cables serve the country, how its leading internet providers are performing, and what can make a website appear offline for users there while it works everywhere else.
Current connectivity status in France
As of our latest hourly measurement cycle, the national internet signal of France is operating normally (BGP visibility and active probing dip: 0% against the 24-hour baseline). National-level signals catch large events; an individual website can still be unreachable for local reasons, which is what the availability checker above is for.
Connectivity for most users in France is provided by a small group of networks:
| Provider | ASN | Share of users | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| AS3215 - Orange S.A. | AS3215 | 35.2% | No recent anomaly |
| PROXAD - Free SAS | AS12322 | 19.1% | No recent anomaly |
| BOUYGTEL-ISP - Bouygues Telecom SA | AS5410 | 17.8% | No recent anomaly |
| LDCOMNET - Societe Francaise Du Radiotelephone - SFR SA | AS15557 | 17.3% | No recent anomaly |
| FREEM - Free Mobile SAS | AS51207 | 5% | No recent anomaly |
If a website fails to load only for customers of one of these providers, the problem is almost always local: DNS resolution inside that network, ISP-level filtering, or a routing issue, rather than the website itself being down.
Submarine cables that connect France to the internet
The following systems land in France. Cable length is a rough proxy for how much of the world a system reaches: long trunks connect continents, short ones link neighbors. Our monitors registered 3 latency anomalies on cables serving France in the last 30 days.
| Cable system | Length | In service since |
|---|---|---|
| 2Africa | 45,000 km | 2024 |
| PEACE Cable | 25,000 km | 2022 |
| Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1) | 25,000 km | 2017 |
| SeaMeWe-6 | 21,700 km | 2026 |
| SeaMeWe-4 | 20,000 km | 2005 |
| SeaMeWe-5 | 20,000 km | 2016 |
| Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) | 17,000 km | 2012 |
| FLAG Atlantic-1 (FA-1) | 14,500 km | 2001 |
| Apollo | 13,000 km | 2003 |
| IMEWE | 12,091 km | 2010 |
| Africa-1 | 10,000 km | 2026 |
| India Europe Xpress (IEX) | 9,775 km | 2026 |
Plus 22 more systems, mostly regional links. Live health data for every cable is available on the linked pages.
How resilient is France to cable failures?
With 34 cable systems across 27 landing stations, France has one of the most redundant internet connections in the world. Traffic can reroute across many independent systems, so a single cable fault rarely affects end users. Repairs at sea typically take one to several weeks, because a specialized cable ship has to locate the fault, lift the cable and splice it on deck.
Why a website may not load in France
When a site works in other countries but fails in France, the usual suspects are, in order of likelihood: a DNS problem inside a local ISP, a content delivery network misrouting users in France to an unhealthy edge node, a routing or peering issue between local networks and the site's host, and finally a submarine cable incident affecting the whole region.
Our DNS measurements have not flagged systematic national filtering in France, although individual ISPs and corporate networks can still block specific resources.
Neighbors on the same cables
These countries share submarine cable systems with France, so a major cable incident can affect them together:
🇪🇬 Egypt (12 shared) · 🇮🇹 Italy (10 shared) · 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia (10 shared) · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom (8 shared) · 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates (8 shared) · 🇮🇳 India (6 shared)
See the full list on the website availability by country hub.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if a website is down in France?
Enter the URL into the free Global Availability Checker on this site. It compares measurement data from 80+ countries, including probes relevant to France, and shows in seconds whether the site is down everywhere or only unreachable from specific regions.
How many submarine cables connect France?
France is served by 34 submarine cable systems landing at 27 coastal stations. The longest systems are 2Africa, PEACE Cable, Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1).
Why does a website work in other countries but not in France?
The most common causes are DNS failures inside a local ISP, CDN edge problems, routing issues between France and the hosting network, national filtering, and submarine cable faults. Testing the URL from multiple countries immediately narrows down which one it is.
Who are the largest internet providers in France?
The leading networks by user share are AS3215 - Orange S.A., PROXAD - Free SAS, BOUYGTEL-ISP - Bouygues Telecom SA. Together they carry the majority of consumer traffic, so a problem inside any of them affects a large share of users in France.
Can a single cable failure disconnect France?
No. With 34 independent cable systems, traffic reroutes automatically around a single fault.
Does France block websites?
We have not detected systematic national filtering in France, but individual ISPs and corporate networks can still block specific sites.
Data: GeoCables submarine cable telemetry, RIPE Atlas measurements, IODA national signals, APNIC user estimates. Numbers refresh automatically; last update July 11, 2026.