Spain has experienced a massive outage of mobile and internet services, with problems affecting all major cities, including Madrid, Malaga, Barcelona, Valencia, Murcia, Seville and Bilbao.
Spain has experienced a massive outage of mobile and internet services, with problems affecting all major cities, including Madrid, Malaga, Barcelona, Valencia, Murcia, Seville and Bilbao.
According to DownDetector, the mobile network problems began around 5 a.m. All major operators in Spain stopped working: Movistar, Orange, Vodafone, Digimobil, and O2.
People couldn't make calls, receive text messages, or use mobile data.
In addition to communications, internet problems were reported. The outage also affected emergency phone lines, as the pan-European emergency number 112 became unavailable in parts of Spain.
Some companies were completely locked out of their systems and unable to download software or turn on their computers, LBC reported .
The problem apparently arose due to a serious system failure at Telefónica, which is the operator of most of Spain's mobile networks.
This international company is the second largest in Spain and has telecommunications operations in 18 countries, making it one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world.
The telecommunications giant reportedly carried out a network upgrade that went off-plan and ultimately caused a nationwide power outage for millions of Spanish residents.
A company spokesperson told Spanish newspaper ABC that the problem was caused by a failed network update, and that its engineers were working to fix it.
After 10:30 a.m., some services were already restored, such as the 112 emergency line, reports the Spanish publication EFE.
Recall that on April 28, Spain and Portugal were hit by a massive blackout , as well as parts of France. According to the Portuguese network operator, the cause of the blackout was a “rare atmospheric phenomenon.” European Council President António Costa said that the European blackout “shows no signs of a cyberattack.”
