Netherlands hit by major telecoms outage

The Netherlands has been hit by its largest telecommunications outage in recent history, with emergency service numbers knocked out across the country.

The disruption, which lasted four hours, originated from national carrier Royal KPN, and affected other providers linked to its network.

KPN said the cause was still unclear but did not appear to be a hack.

“We have no reason to think it was (a hack) and we monitor our systems 24/7,” a company spokeswoman told Reuters.

Landlines and mobile phones linked to the KPN network were also affected.

Speaking to public broadcaster NPO, KPN’s board director Joost Farwerck said the network had been backed up to prevent any malfunction, but the backups had not worked.

During the disruption, additional police were sent on to streets around the country.

Authorities also advised people to go directly to hospitals or to police or fire stations for any emergencies.

The government response prompted a backlash after people trying to dial the 112 emergency services number were told to contact a number used by editors of local newspaper De Telegraaf.

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BBC