Spain experienced a major communication blackout on Tuesday, disrupting internet and landline services across the country and severely impacting emergency response systems. The outage, traced back to recent network upgrades by telecommunications giant Telefónica, marks the second nationwide disruption in a matter of weeks—following a widespread electricity outage that had already caused chaos and economic damage.
According to Spanish media, landline telephone services were the most affected, though all Telefónica voice services experienced disruptions. Critical emergency hotlines in several regions, including Aragón, Extremadura, the Basque Country, and Valencia, were forced to provide alternative numbers to maintain accessibility for citizens in need.
“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, Telefonica Global stated at the recent FutureNet World show in London.
A Telefónica spokesperson acknowledged the issue, stating, “We have carried out some network upgrades that have affected specific services at some companies. We are working to resolve this.” Partial service restoration began later in the morning, but the incident highlighted vulnerabilities in Spain’s digital and emergency infrastructure.
The repeated breakdowns raise concerns about the resilience of essential services in the face of rapid tech upgrades and infrastructure modernization. As Spain navigates its digital transformation, ensuring continuity of emergency and communication networks is now more critical than ever.
