Across Germany, people had to contend with massive restrictions on telephoning on Thursday. It is said to have been due to a fault in the O2 mobile network.
According to the company, the problems are almost completely resolved. As a spokesman said, the technicians had stabilized the network and restored availability with just a few rework. The reason for the restrictions on mobile telephony was a fault on a voice transmission server. However, a large part of the telephone calls can be transmitted via other servers. Telephony via the Internet, for example Whatsapp, continued to work.
The situation calmed down in the evening
Because of the disturbances, the authorities in many parts of Germany had received increased indications on Thursday afternoon that the emergency number could not be reached. In Bremen and Hamburg, the situation centers issued official hazard reports that the emergency numbers 110 and 112 had been impaired.
The authorities in Berlin, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg also reported problems in the O2 mobile network – and thus for some citizens when reaching the emergency numbers. The situation calmed down in the evening.
In NRW, the disturbances initially continued in the evening. The emergency lines were never disturbed, said a spokeswoman for the situation center.
In Berlin, the all-clear was given in the evening via the Katwarn and Nina warning systems. It said there were no longer any known disruptions in the Berlin area. The Berlin fire brigade had previously received increasing reports that the emergency call 112 could not be dialed. On the part of the fire brigade, however, the emergency call worked, said a spokesman. If you can’t get through, it’s because of your own telephone network.
“Currently no telephone disturbances are known”
The all-clear was also given late in the evening in Bremen and Hamburg. The impairments have been largely remedied, said the situation center in Bremen. From Hamburg it said: “There are currently no known telephone faults.” The Senate and the police in Hamburg had previously reported on Twitter about the disruption in mobile communications. The presence of officers on the street has meanwhile increased.
It is not entirely clear why there were such severe restrictions on the accessibility of the emergency numbers in Hamburg and Bremen. The O2 spokesman said that some customers were unable to dial the emergency number due to the restrictions on telephony. “We cannot currently confirm other connections with regard to the availability of emergency calls.”
A Vodafone spokesman said there were only slight restrictions on LTE telephony in its own network. However, these are not a problem for customers because their calls are then controlled via the GSM (2G) network. Deutsche Telekom made it clear that its network was working without any problems.