Telenor outage in Norway halts trains and emergency phone lines — RMF24

In Norway, an outage in Telenor's mobile network on Thursday afternoon disrupted telephone communications, emergency services and rail transport. Residents in all regions of the country had problems making and receiving calls, while the disruptions also affected subscribers of other mobile operators, RMF24 reports.

Problems calling for help

The outage complicated the work of the police, fire service and ambulance service. Emergency phone lines stopped working, and services had difficulty receiving requests. Police introduced crisis procedures: uniformed officers were to be on duty outside police stations in Oslo, where residents could seek help in person.

Many ambulance units were also unable to receive calls. People who needed help were urged to go directly to medical facilities. A nurse at the emergency medical dispatch center for Eastern Norway told VG that the situation would become worrying if the outage dragged on.

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Trains stopped for safety reasons

Train traffic across Norway was suspended. Trains were urgently stopped at the nearest stations. The rail infrastructure operator explained that the decision was made because it was impossible to contact emergency services. The trains themselves remained technically operational, but could not continue for safety reasons.

The cause of the outage has not yet been disclosed. Telenor said that, at this point, there were no signs that the outage was the result of a hacker attack.