Emergency calls are also affected: massive disruptions across the country in the O2 cellular telephone network

Emergency calls are also affected
Massive disruptions nationwide in the O2 cell phone network

11/17/2022, 6:44 PM

Mobile and Internet users are experiencing problems nationwide. The O2 provider has announced that there are currently restrictions on mobile and fixed-line networks nationwide. According to the Allestoerungen.de website, reports of outages from the contest have been mounting since around 3 p.m. A spokesman for the Bonn-based group said Deutsche Telekom’s network had not been affected. Vodafone spoke of minor restrictions that are not a problem for customers.

In view of the significant disturbances in mobile networks, many state authorities have also warned that an emergency call may fail. Appropriate information was sent via the NINA and Katwarn warning apps.

In several federal states – including Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen and Baden-Württemberg – networks were said to be down across the country. An emergency call to firefighters and police can also be affected. From Bremen it was said that emergency calls to 110 and 112 were “severely out of order”. The Berlin fire brigade recommended using landline phones if mobile communication is not possible.

“If you cannot reach the emergency number, the problem is not with your phone,” said the police in Hamburg. “In this case, please use another phone and, if necessary, ask neighbors or friends for another phone.” That’s why the Nora emergency call app works reliably.

O2: Work under high pressure

O2 announced that the cause of the mobile problems was an error in the voice transmission server. However, a significant part of phone calls can be transmitted through other servers. They are working hard to make sure customers can make unlimited calls again. “We apologize for the inconvenience and ask for patience.” Calls using apps like WhatsApp were possible via data transmission servers.

A Vodafone spokesperson said there were only minor restrictions on LTE telephony in its own network. Calls will then be controlled over the GSM (2G) network, which is why it is not a problem for customers.

In the afternoon, around 19,500 mobile phone users reported disruptions to the O2 network on the allestoerungen.de portal. On allestoerungen.de, reports of alleged failures at Vodafone and Telekom have also increased, although not as much at O2. This could be because Vodafone and Telekom customers called someone in the O2 network and thought the lack of connection was due to their own network – but in fact it was network problems at O2 that were to blame.