Telefónica network failure disrupts 112 emergency number across multiple regions of Spain
Several autonomous communities have reported outages, with temporary emergency lines set up to safeguard public safety
An unexpected failure in Telefónica’s network during the early hours of this Tuesday morning, May 20, caused widespread disruption to one of Spain’s most critical services: the 112 emergency number. The outage, which began around 2am, affected landline connections in several autonomous communities, raising serious concerns over public safety.
Although Telefónica has described the event as a “one-off” fault limited to “some companies”, the impact has proven far broader. The malfunction affected fixed-line services nationwide for several hours and, crucially, rendered the 112 emergency number unreachable in several areas. The company now assures that the service has been fully restored.
The incident comes just three weeks after a massive electrical failure in the power grid left most of mainland Spain without power for over 24 hours in some cases, and also on the back of transport network failures between two of Spain’s largest cities, Madrid and Seville.
The alarm about the lack of 112 emergency service contact was first raised by emergency responders in the autonomous communities of Extremadura and Aragón. Authorities in Extremadura reported being mobilised from the outset to mitigate risks to the public. However, the scale of the disruption forced regional governments to implement emergency contingency measures.
In the Valencian Community, officials set up an alternative number – 0034 963 428 000 – to ensure that emergency calls can still be received. Local authorities clarified that the issue does not stem from regional systems but is instead due to a failure in the national communications infrastructure.
Similarly, in Aragón, three back-up mobile numbers were deployed as a stopgap: 0034 638 638 273, 0034 683 134 645 and 0034 660 705 897. During the time when the 112 number was down, residents were urged to use those alternative lines.
In addition to the emergency number outage, hundreds of citizen reports were filed, mainly linked to fixed internet services. Many users reported a complete loss of connection, compounding frustrations at a time when other national services are also experiencing difficulties.
Image: @josemiguelsangar
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