Major Spanish mobile network hit by widespread outages

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Millions of users of the Spanish mobile network Telefonica experienced outages on Tuesday, losing access to landlines, internet and emergency lines.

Less than a month after Spain suffered a nationwide blackout, technical issues with one of its main communications providers caused widespread disruptions.

The outages affected major regions including Andalusia, the Basque Country and Valencia.

A company spokesperson told Spanish daily El Pais newspaper that Telefonica had attempted a network update overnight, which led to a technical failure.

Landlines were reportedly the most impacted, though many users also lost internet access.

The 112 emergency line failed in several regions. It has since been restored in at least some parts of the country.

The communications failure follows Spain’s recent nationwide blackout, when many users lost both internet and telephone access, and many local emergency numbers struggled to resume proper operation even after the power was restored.