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The Spanish Government wants to guarantee by law the operation of mobile phones for at least 4 hours in the event of a blackout

The purpose of this draft regulation is to strengthen security measures in the telecommunications sector, to prevent or reduce the impact of such incidents on the safety of users and to restore communications as soon as possible. Operators must legally ensure the efficiency of 'first level' infrastructures for at least 24 hours and 12 hours for 'intermediate level' infrastructures, which will be classified by the operators themselves.

(Foto de ARCHIVO)

Una mujer ilumina con la linterna del móvil un plano de la red de Metro de Madrid en una estación, el 28 de abril de 2025 en Madrid, España.



Alejandro Martínez Vélez / Europa Press

28/4/2025

A woman with a mugorra illuminating the Madrid subway plane during the mass blackout in April.

Telecommunications operators will have to guarantee aminimum of four hours of mobile telephony service to 85% of the population in the eventof a blackout, according to the royal decree on network security and resilience.

If this royal decree is adopted, operators must legally guarantee the efficiency of "first level" infrastructure for at least 24 hoursand 12 hours for "intermediate level" infrastructures, as reported on Tuesday by the Ministry of Digital Transformation and Public Service.

The draft does not specify what these primary and intermediate infrastructures are, since they will be classified by the operators themselves, and they will also have to design specific risk studies and plans in a security plan to be drawn up.

This rule will also affect digital infrastructure operators such as underwater cables, satellite systems, data centres and Internet exchange points with more than half a million users or 50 million  entries, a minimum which also affects telecommunications operators.

The purpose of this draft regulation is to strengthen security measures in the telecommunications sector, to prevent or reduce the impact of such incidents on the safety of users and to recover communications as soon as possible.

The initiative has been launched following events such as the covid-19, the volcanic eruption of La Palama or the DANA in Valencia.

Notice after incident, no more than an hour.

The draft regulation also focuses on strengthening the effectiveness and continuity of emergency communications for 112 centres and public alerts, which, as well as operators providing them with connectivity, must draw up and present security plans.

In order to have reliable information as soon as possible, the reporting obligations of incidents shall be strengthened . It is thus envisaged that the Secretariat of State for Telecommunications shall be informed, within a maximum period of one hour from the commencement of the incident, of a periodic interim communication, as well as of the termination of the incident, and a detailed report shall be submitted to the Secretariat containing the reasons for the incident, its impact, the measures taken and the lessons learned.

The State Secretariat for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure shall be the competent authority for monitoring compliance with obligations and for coordination with national bodies, autonomous communities and European and international bodies.

The text provides for the creation of a coordination table on the security and resilience of electronic communications networks and services, which will serve as a forum for discussion and dialogue, which will enable all those involved to be contacted and simulated.

The document is at a public hearing from this Tuesday until January 8. 

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