Berlin power outage: How mobile communications and internet come back online

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Following the arson attack on a power line, southwestern Berlin is experiencing a blackout affecting tens of thousands of households and businesses, as well as numerous mobile phone sites and fixed-line infrastructure. Network operators are working at high pressure to first restore mobile communications and have already made significant progress on Monday.

Network operators are legally obliged to maintain their telecommunications services, especially in emergencies. This applies primarily to calls and SMS. Therefore, they cannot simply wait for the power to be restored.

Emergency protocols are activated

To ensure call routing even in emergencies like a power outage, some antenna sites have their emergency power supply with a battery buffer. However, even these systems are not equipped to bridge long power outages like this one.

Network operators have their emergency protocols for such cases, which have now been activated. One measure is to align antennas in adjacent areas that are still supplied with power towards the affected area. In parallel, they are bringing antennas crucial for basic supply back online with mobile generators.

“For such situations, o2 Telefónica has established a comprehensive security and preparedness concept and, as part of this, maintains emergency power generators, among other things, to supply sites with energy again at short notice if necessary,” explains a Telefónica spokesperson. In the O2 network, 18 antenna sites are affected by the power outage.

“By commissioning power generators and realigning adjacent mobile radio stations as early as Saturday morning, basic mobile communications could be ensured,” said a Vodafone spokesperson. At Vodafone, 39 sites are affected by the outage, of which 29 were back online on Monday. “Only three sites cannot be supplied with emergency power for technical reasons.”

At Telekom, the priority was also to restore mobile communications. As of Monday, 19 out of 29 affected mobile radio stations are back in operation. “Our teams have optimized and calibrated all available stations in the affected area to ensure the greatest possible range for emergency supply,” said a Telekom spokesperson. “Telephony and SMS, as well as emergency calls, are generally possible throughout the entire area of the power outage.”

Telekom is providing its approximately 25,000 customers affected by the power outage with unlimited data volume for 30 days. “Many of these people will be able to use this data volume in emergency shelters and other locations outside the power outage area,” says the spokesperson.

1&1 has also experienced disruptions due to the widespread power outage in parts of Berlin. “1&1 naturally complies with the telecommunications security obligation according to §185 TKG,” says a spokesperson. “To this end, we rely on a comprehensive package of measures, including geo-redundancy, backups, and restart plans. Due to our national roaming contract with Vodafone, customers in the 1&1 O-RAN even have increased failure security in the radio access network area.”

“Exchanges operational at all times”

Eight Telekom exchanges are located in the area affected by the power outage. “These exchanges were operational at all times, as the power supply could be successfully secured via battery and backup power systems,” says the Telekom spokesperson. “Control centers were not affected at any time.”

It takes a little longer to bring fixed-line internet connections back online. “Fixed-line telephony, internet, and MagentaTV will only be fully available again once the power supply is restored,” explains the Telekom spokesperson. “As soon as the power is working again for people, they can use the fixed-line services again.”

At Vodafone, one operating site was completely cut off from the power grid. “After the power capacity buffer was depleted, we were temporarily unable to supply the connected 47,000 households with cable TV, broadband internet, and fixed-line telephony,” explains the spokesperson. As early as Saturday afternoon, “with a great effort and the use of snowplows,” the operating site was reconnected to power with a large generator.

On Tuesday evening, over 20,000 households in Berlin were still without power. A “Vulkan group” has claimed responsibility for the attack on the power line and is also believed to be responsible for the power and internet outage in western Berlin in 2018 and the attack on the Tesla factory in Brandenburg.

The authorities consider the claim of responsibility to be authentic and contradict speculation about a “false flag” operation with Russian involvement. The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office has taken over the investigation, as is usual in cases of terrorist attacks.

Massive criticism of crisis management

Meanwhile, the Berlin administration is facing massive criticism of its crisis management. Aid measures were launched too slowly and hesitantly, it was said. Furthermore, the weaknesses in Berlin's power grid, which formed a power island until 1994, have long been known.

In 1997, the state-owned Bewag was privatized, and three years later, the Vattenfall group took over the Berlin utility and the power grid. In 2021, the state bought back the power grid for over 2 billion euros. None of the previous owners apparently saw any urgent reason to strengthen the historically determined weaknesses of the grid.

This is apparently set to change. “In the present case, several systems were damaged simultaneously by the attack,” explains a spokesperson for the Berlin Senate. “Stromnetz Berlin GmbH is continuously working to make the system redundant. For the affected supply area, there are concrete projects for safety-enhancing measures through alternative cable connections. These are currently being implemented.” However, this can take time – the Senate speaks of months to years for such projects.

Does the Berlin power grid, once a power island surrounded by the GDR, still harbor other such vulnerable “single points of failure”? The Senate does not want to answer this clearly – also for security reasons. “Stromnetz Berlin conducts regular and systematic vulnerability analyses, as is customary for operators of critical infrastructures. These are incorporated into continuous improvement measures,” explains the spokesperson. In plain language, this means: Yes.

(vbr)