Due to a malfunction, Spaniards were unable to reach the emergency number 112 properly on Tuesday morning. Therefore, the country has set up an alternative number for emergencies. This raises the question for readers: how accessible is 112 in the Netherlands in such situations?
In the Netherlands, the emergency center is always accessible as long as you have mobile coverage. It does not matter which provider you are connected to. If the coverage of, for example, Odido fails due to a malfunction, you can still call 112 via another provider.
Here’s how it works: a phone basically only calls via the network of the provider with which you have a subscription. But not if you call the emergency number. Then your phone automatically searches for an available network.
“This is well organized in the Netherlands,” says Rudolf van der Berg of telecom advisory firm Stratix to NU.nl. A few years ago, according to him, this was not the case. Then all telephone traffic to and from the emergency center went through KPN. “So if there was a malfunction at KPN, no one could call the emergency number,” says Van der Berg.
Yet the current system is not foolproof, as we saw in April 2023. Due to a malfunction at Vodafone, customers could no longer call 112. Other providers should have absorbed that telephone traffic, but that did not happen. Because there was a connection via Vodafone, it seemed as if you could ‘just’ call. But the callers were not audible.
Remove Sim Card and Backup Systems
In such cases, people can, for example, remove their SIM card from their phone. Then the phone does not first try to call via its own provider. “Or you have to ask other people to call for you, hoping that they are connected to another provider,” says Van der Berg.
The authorities can also, just like in Spain, choose to activate an alternative emergency number. But that also went wrong during the power outage two years ago. The other telephone number did not end up at the control room, but forwarded callers to the tip line of De Telegraaf.
Furthermore, the telecom providers have a backup system that runs on batteries or generators, says media expert Jarco Kriek. He specializes in the offerings of telecom providers. These backup systems can generally still supply power for about two hours. “This is how the first phase of a power outage is absorbed, in the hope that it can be resolved.”
Less necessary things, such as mobile internet, are then scaled down first, adds Van der Berg. “The priority is really on keeping the emergency center accessible.”
Update in Spanish Telephone Network caused the Malfunction
Due to an update in the Spanish telephone network of Telefónica, the emergency services were not or not properly accessible on Tuesday morning, writes medium El País. People also temporarily had no internet.
The malfunction started around 2:00 AM and lasted until approximately 10:30 AM. Among others, the regions of Andalusia, Valencia, Basque Country and Navarra were affected.
Spain and Portugal were hit by a major power outage last month. This was caused by the failure of a number of distribution stations, leaving no power in all of Spain and parts of Portugal. The cause has not yet been determined.
Only in Very Exceptional Sitations is 112 Unreachable
Yet the Netherlands also has “dead spots,” says Kriek. By that he means places where there is no coverage at all. “Fortunately, this does not happen much here, but there are certainly small areas where the coverage is not adequate.” Then it is good to, for example, walk out of the building or go to another street. “Then you quickly have coverage again.”
Only in very exceptional cases is 112 therefore not accessible. This is, for example, in the event of a national power outage, leaving all Dutch people without coverage. “But the chance that something like that will happen is very small,” says Van der Berg.
We have also never experienced anything like this, Kriek emphasizes. The question is how adequate the backup systems of the providers are at that moment. “But if everything is down at the national level, we probably have bigger worries than just the telephone lines.” Then a large part of the emergency provision will mainly be needed for, for example, hospitals. Kriek: “Let’s hope it never has to come to that.”