Germany’s three mobile network operators are making progress in rebuilding their networks in the flood disaster areas. Two thirds of the 150 affected stations are now back in operation, said a spokesman for the network operator Telefónica (o2) on Sunday. Deutsche Telekom said that more than half of the 130 cellular sites that had failed are now back on the network.
In most cases, the network operator’s antennas had failed because the power supply was interrupted. “Many of the stations that are still down are in places that are not yet accessible again,” said the Telefónica spokesman. There are four mobile stations in use, ten more are ready.
Network operator: Range increase & mobile units
At Vodafone, a sixth of the mobile radio stations in the German flood disaster areas were still not on the network on Sunday, as a company spokesman reported. In the case of systems in the surrounding areas, the range has been increased to enable a “basic supply”. With such a basic supply, the performance is somewhat weaker than usual, but at least it enables connections again in some places.
Vodafone also relies on mobile units to plug radio gaps. According to an estimate by the Düsseldorf company, ten percent of customers in the disaster areas are still without reception, i.e. in a dead zone.
At Telekom are also still Dead spots exist in the flood areas. There are cell phone locations and cables that cannot be accessed for repairs or are not allowed for reasons of danger, said a company spokesman. “The main problems currently remain the lack of power supply and the accessibility of the locations.” Overall, however, one is making progress.
Fixed network also restricted
The floods also had serious consequences for the landline network, i.e. the Internet via lines to the apartments. Many gray boxes – so-called cable distributors – were destroyed or damaged in the streets. In addition, the water and debris tore out fiber optic and copper cables.
The switching centers are currently being made functional again. At the weekend, the central hub in Gerolstein was brought back online, said the Telekom spokesman. Around 10,000 connections and several cell phone locations are attached to this exchange.
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