Paris – October 13, 2026 -- Orange has launched "Reconnexion Flash" in France, a service that moves a household's entire connection to the customer's smartphone hotspot when the fiber line fails. It runs on SoftAtHome's Always'ON software and needs no extra hardware.
Orange activated the service remotely for customers with the latest Wi-Fi 7 gateways, the Livebox 7 Wi-Fi 7 and the Livebox S. No hardware is shipped. Dedicated backup kit such as a 4G dongle or mobile router has been the usual fallback during fiber cuts or maintenance, and Always'ON removes that step.
Livebox detects outages and switches to the smartphone hotspot automatically
The Livebox detects the outage, connects to the smartphone's hotspot and keeps serving the home network. Laptops, tablets, smart TVs and connected devices stay online over Wi-Fi or Ethernet without reconfiguration.
The customer installs no mobile app, configures no VPN and relies on no dedicated server. Setup takes a few minutes:
- The Livebox screen shows a QR code as soon as an outage is detected.
- Scanning the code opens a short web tutorial on activating the smartphone hotspot and entering the password the Livebox provides.
- The Livebox finds the nearby smartphone and connects automatically, so the customer does not need to pick a network name.
Traffic returns to fiber automatically while fixed-network services pause
When fiber service is restored, the Livebox redirects traffic to the fixed line and closes the mobile link automatically. Internet services, including streaming video apps, run over the backup connection. Services tied to the fixed network, such as the Livebox landline phone and Orange's multicast TV channels, resume only when fiber returns.
Orange frames the launch as a network resilience play
Laurence Thouveny, Customer Experience EVP at Orange, said the service gives customers a fast, autonomous way to keep their connection during an outage. She described it as an unprecedented technological breakthrough on the French market.
SoftAtHome CEO Arnaud Bellivier de Prin said an outage is the moment a broadband customer judges the operator. With Always'ON, he said, the operator keeps control of the experience while the home stays online through the smartphone. The product is designed to run on different gateway software environments, including prpl.