European mobile operators risk serious problems during the heating season due to the energy crisis. The European Union's plan to combat the consequences of the energy crisis includes rolling blackouts to save energy, but Europe's mobile infrastructure is not ready for this – telecommunications companies will not be able to maintain the operation of towers and stations during periods of blackouts, which threatens the stability of networks in most EU countries. Reuters writes about this with reference to market participants and officials familiar with the discussion of the problem.
Representatives of the telecommunications business are not used to such situations, so their service plans have not included backup power supplies for stations for a long time, the agency notes. The maximum how long the towers can stretch without electricity on autonomous sources is 30 minutes. However, not all stations and towers have their own energy sources, which jeopardizes the provision of mobile communications to Europe's largest economies.
French, German, Italian and Swedish operators have warned about the risks of being left without mobile communications, who are asking national governments to review the plan of rolling blackouts and include telecommunications infrastructure in the list of critical ones, which will allow networks to be maintained even during a crisis period. So far, such exceptions are provided only for operators that serve government and emergency services.
Difficulties in meeting the requirements of operators also lie in the fact that isolating networks and providing electricity only to towers is an almost impossible task from the point of view of infrastructure, since at the moment the networks are not autonomous. A possible way out of the situation in Sweden is seen in the installation of autonomous power systems that would turn on at the time of a large-scale power outage. French and German companies are negotiating with the government, but their backup power sources are not enough for the entire network, only for a part. Italian companies go further and demand that the new government exclude the possibility of disconnecting operators' networks during rolling blackouts.
Marketers and policy makers admit that they are forced to reap the benefits of underfunding the energy conservation industry, which in the current crisis could help a lot. At the same time, while companies, lobbyists and national authorities continue discussions, telecommunications equipment suppliers are trying to reduce energy consumption and increase the energy efficiency of existing stations by updating software and hardware. For example, some stations have developed the ability to "go to sleep" if it is not used. Similar measures are being taken by Nokia and Ericsson, whose representatives declined to comment on the situation.