Telecom outage
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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