O blackout that left millions of people without access to electricity in the Spain and in Portugal last Monday (28) boosted the use of Starlinksatellite communication service commanded by Elon Musk, in record numbers.
According to data analyzed by the newspaper Financial Timesthe use of technology increased 35% above average in both countries. In Spain alone, the search for Starlink grew 60% of the average of Tuesday (29), amid the challenges for the restructuring of the power grid.
The data were provided by the consulting firm Ookla. According to the information, the quality of musk’s satellite network coverage lost quality with increased search, but did not interrupted the lack of widespread energy in the Iberian peninsula.
Despite the resource used in last week’s emergency, the Financial Times It points out it is unlikely that Starlink will be able to provide wide coverage to serve millions in a similar blackout, as users need to have enough energy on their devices to access the service.
. For experts, blackout was the result of the company’s inability to manage a larger solar power supply.
The electric Red ruled out a cyber attack as a cause, but Spain’s Higher Court said the cause.
The Spanish Prime Minister, said on Tuesday (29) that, even if the electric Red had ruled out a cyber attack to his systems, that did not mean that one could not have occurred.
The company said it had identified two cases of power generation loss, probably solar plants in southwestern Spain, which caused instability in the electrical system and led to the interruption of their interconnection with France. The electrical system collapsed ,.
The consistency of the network fell to half its normal service on Monday, as thousands of mobile antennas in Spain were damaged by the lack of energy.
“Many people tried to access few resources. So, during the recovery phase, it was difficult to stabilize connectivity,” he explained to Financial Times Claudio Fiandrino, researcher at the IMDEA Network Institute in Madrid.
Vodafone España said the reserve generators were already working in 70% of their units in Spain after the start of the blackout. Already Telefónica stated that it prioritized the service of emergency services and hospitals, and that 95% of the level network had been restored just over 24 hours of the incident.
Despite the consequences of the widespread drop in energy, Ookla stated that more countries other than Spain and Portugal do not have a “significant presence” of battery reserve generators in the mobile network.
Spanish and Portuguese telecommunications companies operate with “very tight margins” due to very low prices, said Luke Kehoe of Ookla.
In the United Kingdom, the newspaper reported, a survey of Ofcom showed that in cases of brief energy cuts, two thirds of the country could make emergency calls for at least an hour.
*With information from Reuters
