The massive power outages that hit Spain and Portugal in late April exposed critical vulnerabilities in the country’s telecommunications infrastructure. The significant reduction in mobile coverage led to record growth in the use of Starlink satellite internet, despite its deterioration in quality under congestion.
On Monday, a widespread power outage in the Iberian Peninsula sent connectivity to a steep decline in Spain and Portugal. As a result, users turned en masse to the Starlink satellite internet service. According to Ookla, Starlink usage was up 35% from normal levels when terrestrial telecommunications networks began to fail. The following day, Starlink usage in Spain was up 60% higher than normal as mobile operators struggled to restore full coverage.
According to Luke Kehoe, a spokesperson for Ookla, the country saw record levels of Starlink connections. The exact number of users is not being disclosed, but it is in the thousands of new connections. The quality of the satellite connection has deteriorated as the load has increased, but unlike traditional mobile networks, the Starlink service has continued to operate. Even with possible loss of connection to some ground stations in mainland Spain, the system has provided connections through other countries, including Italy.
Red Eléctrica, the company that runs the Spanish power grid, said the exact cause of the outage was still unknown. Some experts speculate that the outage could have been due to an overload caused by unusually high levels of solar energy production that the grid was unable to cope with. However, there has been no official confirmation of this hypothesis.
The energy crisis has had a major impact on mobile networks in Spain and Portugal. Many base stations were switched off because they were without power. Only those with backup generators continued to operate. This led to a significant drop in connection stability. An Ookla analysis showed that on Monday afternoon, network reliability had dropped to 50% of normal levels.
Vodafone España said backup generators were active at 70% of its sites in the country when the outage began. However, by 11pm local time, coverage remained at just 20% in some regions, including Galicia, Castilla-La Mancha and Murcia. Meanwhile, Telefónica said it had prioritised critical sites such as emergency services and health facilities amid limited resources. Within just over 24 hours, the company had restored 95% of its mobile network and had achieved full coverage by Thursday.
The lack of battery backup is not unique to the Iberian Peninsula, says Keyhoe. Spain and Portugal lack a wide network of mobile base stations with reliable backup power. Similar problems have been identified in the UK. Ofcom reports that around two-thirds of the country’s population would be able to make emergency calls within an hour of a power outage, thanks to around 20% of base stations having backup power. However, less than 5% of base stations can operate autonomously for six hours. Ofcom estimates that upgrading the infrastructure to provide emergency communications for almost all users for four hours would cost $1 billion.
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