Telefonica's Spanish network update causes partial communications outage

Spanish telecom company Telefonica said works to update its network had caused a communications outage of fixed landlines for some companies and the emergency line 112 in some areas of Spain on Tuesday.

The company said its crews were working on reestablishing the service and the emergency lines were already back on.

This comes only four weeks after Spain and Portugal suffered a catastrophic nationwide power outage that plunged the countries into darkness.

According to DownDetector, the networks of all leading providers in Spain, including that of Spanish telecom giant Telefonica, are down, with customers being unable to make calls, receive texts or use their mobile data.

Although the disruption has been linked to a network upgrade being carried out by Telefonica, customers of other networks said on social media that they were also facing outages.

Emergency services in various regions have issued alternative contact numbers due to the national emergency number '112' being impacted.

Spain's Ministry of Digital Transformation confirmed to The Independent that it is closely monitoring the situation. 

The power outage in April, which left Spain and Portugal in darkness for nearly 23 hours, severely disrupted daily life. The blackout notably affected metro systems and airports, leading to the cancellation of hundreds of flights across both countries.