The Spanish government "finalizes" the rule to guarantee four hours of mobile connection in case of a blackout

MadridOne of the things that failed when the massive power outage occurred on April 28 last year was the mobile connection. The Spanish government announced a few months ago that it wanted to reverse this by obliging telecommunications operators in the State to guarantee this service for at least four hours despite the power supply failure. And now it is "finalizing" the regulation to make it a reality before the end of the year, as announced by the Minister for Digital Transformation, Óscar López, this Thursday, during the Digitales forum.

The obligation to guarantee four hours of mobile coverage and voice and data connection will be included in the royal decree on Security and Resilience of electronic communications networks and services and certain digital infrastructures, which will be approved before the end of the year, said the minister. Companies will have to have batteries that maintain mobile coverage during these hours for 75% of the population in the State. The obligation, however, will be introduced gradually: in the first year after its entry into force, it will have to cover 50% of the population; in the second year, 65% of the population, until reaching 75% of citizens with mobile connection. The minister defended this progression so that companies "begin to gradually implement new security plans, redundancy obligations, and batteries for telecommunications antennas". López defended that this is a new "digital right"

This, however, will require a strong investment from the operators. In fact, Alfonso Álvarez, CEO of Cellnex, acknowledged it in an interview with ARA. "For smaller outages, two hours, three hours, it is advisable to have more battery autonomy and for the customer not to notice it. I imagine that in the coming weeks and months, additional investments will be agreed upon to gradually install batteries and support systems that allow the mobile network to last a little longer as well," Álvarez reflected.

Reinforcement of other infrastructures

On the other hand, intermediate-level facilities, for example, management centers that can affect autonomous communities, will be obliged to be operational for at least 12 hours without electricity supply. First-level essential facilities (for example, control centers, where the centralized intelligence of the networks resides and in which a supply failure can affect the entire country) must have their operability guaranteed for at least 24 hours.

Finally, regarding the 112 and public alert centers, the operators that offer them connectivity will have to prepare and present security and resilience plans. In addition, they will have to have alternative communication channels. For example, a 112 center can opt to have several operators providing it with service, or the possibility of using both mobile and fixed networks. The objective is that the 112 center is as little affected as possible by an electrical blackout.