One of the worst consequences of the war between Russia and Ukraine is likely to come, with power outages and disruptions in mobile networks across Europe this winter.
Reuters Reports According to , this year in Europe, mobile phone networks are likely to be disrupted due to power outages during the winter.
Russia’s decision to cut gas supplies through a key supply route to Europe in the wake of the Ukraine conflict has raised the possibility of power outages, with several French nuclear plants shut down for repairs. It has become more complicated.
Telecom industry officials say they fear the extreme cold will strain telecoms infrastructure, with companies and governments scrambling to mitigate the effects of power outages.
Four telecom industry executives have said that many European countries currently do not have adequate power backup systems that could cause mobile phone outages.
European countries, including France, Sweden and Germany, are trying not to disrupt communications due to power outages. It should be noted that a power outage can drain the power in the backup battery installed on the antenna of the mobile phone.
There are about 500,000 telecom towers in Europe and most have battery backup and mobile antennas for about 30 minutes.
Sources say that Enidus, the power distribution company in France, has proposed a 2-hour load shedding in the worst case scenario. Mobile phone company telcos have expressed their concerns to the governments of Sweden and Germany over possible power outages.
Swedish telecom operator PTS is working with other telecom operators and government agencies to resolve the problem of power outages.
Deutsche Telekom has 33,000 mobile radio towers in Germany and only a few towers can be backed up by its mobile emergency power system.
According to Lisa Bello, president of the French Federation of Telecoms (FFT), there are about 62,000 mobile towers in France and the industry cannot afford to replace all the antennas with new batteries.
