Telecom in Spain
España hit with major telecom blackout after power outage April 28th
Spain has suffered its second major telecom outage in two months. A widespread mobile network outage early Tuesday morning May 20th left millions without phone or internet access. The outage, which affected all major operators including Movistar, Orange, Vodafone, Digimobil and O2, began around 2:00 AM CET and worsened by 5:00 AM, disrupting services in major cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia, Bilbao and Malaga. Users suffered a complete loss of signal, inability to make calls, receive texts or use mobile data.
Local news site Corriere della Sera had reported that telecom networks across the country were experiencing issues, with the emergency number 112 not working in several areas of the country, including Andalusia, Navarra, and the Basque Country. The outage affected both consumers and enterprises across Spain and took down the “112” Spanish emergency number across multiple communities. Telefonica said it had re-established communications across the country early this afternoon (more below).
The current outage follows a wide-ranging power disruption that affected millions in Spain, Portugal and parts of France on April 28th. That 10-hour-plus electricity outage led to a loss of cellular coverage and mobile data for users. The power failure resulted in mass outages for telco services, with both communications and infrastructure impacted, causing operators to kickstart emergency backup generators to keep services running.
It has had serious implications for emergency services, disrupting access to the EU-wide emergency number 112 in several regions, including Aragón, Extremadura, the Basque Country, and the Valencia community. Authorities quickly responded by issuing alternative contact numbers to ensure public safety. Some services were gradually restored later in the morning, but the disruption caused significant inconvenience to millions of users.
According to Spanish media, the failure was attributed to a major technical fault during a network upgrade by Telefonica, the country’s second-largest company and key operator for most of Spain’s mobile infrastructure. Landline services were hard hit, and all voice-related services experienced disruptions to varying degrees. A Telefonica spokesperson acknowledged the problem, telling UK daily, The Independent, stating, “We have carried out some network upgrades that have affected specific services at some companies. We are working to resolve this.”
The Ministry for Digital Transformation also stepped in, saying it is monitoring the situation and seeking further details. This outage comes less than a month after a nationwide power outage, dubbed the 2025 Iberian Peninsula Blackout, left Spain and parts of Portugal without electricity for nearly 10 hours. The power outage severely affected transport systems, payment terminals, and public safety infrastructure. Cyberattack theories initially surfaced, but authorities later ruled them out.
“I can tell you it was much more painful to be without any connectivity for 7 hours – this is what happened – than to be without any electricity for 11 hours,” Oleg Volpin, president of Telefonica Global stated at the recent FutureNet World show in London.
Services were largely restored by the afternoon as landlines and fixed internet services were also reportedly down. “All service has been re-established except for a case or two where teams are working,” Sergio Sanchez, Telefonica’s operations director, said in a video posted online.
References:
https://www.fierce-network.com/wireless/2nd-major-cellular-disruption-weeks-hits-spain
https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/news/worldview-image-archive/power-outage-spain
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Spain’s Correos to be a MVNO & offer cloud + fiber services
According to reports from Spain news sites La Información and Expansión, the group’s Correos telecom division is preparing to launch a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) and also intends to offer fiber services and a local cloud storage offering.
Correos, chaired by Juan Manuel Serrano, has been developing scenarios for three years to take advantage of its extensive network of offices to diversify the business. It has already closed agreements with banking, energy and telco entities.
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The Correos Telecom website certainly indicates that something important will happen. The reports say the new services could be launched as soon as this week.
The new mobile phone service and high-speed fiber connection will be announced this week and made available to the Group’s employees imminently, thus complying with the first phase of implementation of this new strategy championed by Correos Telecom.
Speculation about a potential Correos MVNO has been around since at least December 2020, when El Pais said the Spanish postal service intended to follow in the footsteps of its French and Italian counterparts by launching its own mobile and Internet services.
Few other details are available as yet, although the reports suggest that fixed and mobile services will initially be targeted at the post office’s own workers and eventually rolled out to anyone who wants them.
La Información said Correos Telecom will offer the group’s 53,000 employees a wide range of mobile phone options as well as two packages of fixed and mobile services, with TV to be added at a later stage.
It’s not clear which mobile network would host any Correos MVNO. A likely contender could be Spain’s fourth-largest operator Másmóvil, the aggressively expansionist group that recently launched a takeover bid for Basque operator Euskaltel.
Másmóvil is already playing host for Sweno, the new MVNO that is due to be launched in collaboration with El Corte Inglés any time soon. Unveiled in March, the Sweno MVNO is expected to offer mobile and fiber services on a converged basis, although there seems to have been some delay in getting the joint products off the ground.
Sweno is an existing El Corte Inglés brand that is being re-purposed for the telecoms offering.
Másmóvil will add to an already brimming pot of marques. As well as Másmóvil itself, the group provides services under the Yoigo, Pepephone, HitsMobile, Lebara, Lycamobile and Llamaya brands.
Másmóvil has become an increasingly a potential competitor of Orange Spain, Telefónica (Movistar) and Vodafone Spain. If the Euskaltel deal goes through, Másmóvil will gain a larger slice of the market. Traditionally a regional player, Euskaltel branched out nationally last year under the Virgin brand.
Spain has been a highly competitive market for years, driven by an early and aggressive move by Telefónica into converged offerings of fixed, mobile and TV services.
All four operators now provide services under their own low-cost brands, such as Telefónica’s Tuenti and O2 Spain; Vodafone’s Lowi; and Orange’s Amena and Simyo.
It certainly remains to be seen how new low-cost offerings from the likes of Correos and El Corte Inglés will be positioned, although the suggestion that Correos will initially target its own workforce would certainly provide it with a ready-made audience.
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References:
https://www.expansion.com/empresas/distribucion/2021/07/23/60f9db08468aeb73428b4612.html
