Spain hit by internet blackout—weeks after nationwide electricity outage
What's the story
Spain is experiencing a major telecommunications outage, affecting all major mobile networks, including Movistar, Orange, Vodafone, Digimobil, and O2. The outage started around 5:00am on Tuesday and has affected most of the country. Major cities like Madrid, Malaga, Barcelona, Valencia, Murcia, Seville, and Bilbao are among those affected. Users have reported issues such as no signal and total blackout on social media platforms like DownDetector.
Service impact
Emergency services disrupted, businesses affected by blackout
The outage has also impacted emergency services, with the Europe-wide emergency number 112 becoming unreachable in parts of Spain. In response, the Valencia government has set up an alternative emergency service number. The Aragon region also activated three alternative numbers after announcing on social media that their 112 line was inoperative. Businesses have been severely affected as well, as some were completely locked out of their systems due to the blackout.
Cause identified
Major network operator's glitch causes nationwide blackout
The problem reportedly appears to have stemmed from a major glitch in Telefonica's system, which is the operator for most of Spain's mobile networks. The multinational company is the second largest in Spain and operates telecom services in 18 countries worldwide. According to reports, Telefonica had attempted a network update that went awry, resulting in the nationwide blackout.
Resolution underway
Telefonica working to resolve issues, restore services
Telefonica has confirmed that their network upgrade work affected some companies' fixed communication services. A spokesperson said they are working to resolve the issue and have already restored some services, including emergency services. These outages come just weeks after Spain experienced a major blackout on April 28, which plunged millions into darkness for around 10 hours.