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Friday, March 29, 2024

Power outage cuts communications

A massive power outage in the Møre og Romsdal region affected 132 base stations in the early hours of Thursday morning, cutting out fixed line, mobile, broadband and emergency networks to thousands of people. Emergency generators also failed, leaving many residents without any method of communications for most of the day.

Sunnmøre police’s chief investigator Sindre Ryssevik said crews were still trying to work out the cause of the outage on Thursday afternoon. Mobile coverage had by that time been restored to many areas but land line telephones were still out in a number of places, including the police operations centre.

“For us, the situation is not yet resolved and we’re keeping to the contingency plan,” said spokesperson Ingmar Farstad. “The worst of it is for the public who are in need of help, and can’t notify us in any other way. It has been challenging and difficult for us. We are a bit surprised that we are as vulnerable as we are.”

Telecoms company Telenor were at a loss to explain why emergency backup generators did not kick in. About 7,000 broadband and 5,000 telephone subscribers were affected, as well as an unknown number of mobile phone users. Extra police patrolled communities so they could be reached in case of an emergency.

newsinenglish.no staff

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