No Internet? Bouygues Telecom Releases whentheinternetisdown.com

Bouygues Telecom, one of the top French Internet Service Providers, launched a new service, “Guaranteed Internet”: an ensured internet access for its subscribers, even when their connection is down, thanks to a 4G mobile hotspot router.

But here’s the thing.Not everyone is a Bouygues client.

So, for all those that have not yet subscribed to the offer and live in fear of the blank web page, Bouygues Telecom and BETC Paris launched whentheinternetisdown.com, an online website that only works when you are offline.

We know it sounds a little strange, or even impossible, but click here while you are still connected: whentheinternetisdown.com and follow the instructions! This offline website contains hours of entertainment to keep you busy until your internet comes back, as well as some tips to fix the most common causes of disconnection: « The promise of the site is very simple: for those who have lost their internet access, it offers a remedy until the connection is back. We’ve made substitutes for all the main online uses, revisited with a bit of humour: binge 67 episodes of your favourite TV show, play an offline online game, listen to your favourite tunes, or do a bit of Instagram stalking! We thought it was an entertaining way to express Bouygues’ signature: We Love Technology ” Stephane Xiberras, CCO & President at BETC.

But how does it work? Maxime Huygue, Head of BETC Digital Studio, explains, "When you’re online and you try to visit the site, you reach an error page, suggesting you turn off your Wi-Fi. Once you deactivate your connection the website will charge from the cache, however only visible while offline. It’s the caching that makes the magic of the site: you can come back 3 weeks, 1 months, 1 year later, still without connection and access all the content. The site mainly contains text, with visuals n ASCII, all to limit the space it takes up in your cache. The entire content weighs less than the wallpaper on your iPhone! Our technological ambition was to take advantage of the possibilities offered by the Progressive

Web Apps, that were recently deployed on iOS, and already available for some time on Android, which allow precisely this caching. We also had to create a back-up experience for older OS users, on whom the PWAs were not supported.”