Germany experienced a major outage in its BOS Digital Radio Network, which is used by police, firefighters and emergency respondents. The cause of disintegration is not clear.
According to the DPA news agency, on Tuesday afternoon, BOS Radio System – The country’s safe digital communication network for emergency services – went down in many areas, the internal ministry confirmed.
A spokesman for the network responsible for the network said, “The BOS Digital Radio Network is currently experiencing a disruption.” “Our office and all partner organizations are giving priority to efforts to identify the cause and restore the entire service as soon as possible.”
Outage has influenced the emergency remittance centers and communication hubs for rescue services and fire fighting departments in many German states. In response, emergency teams in Berlin’s Fire Department and Saxony have temporarily switching on backup communication systems.
Criticism on system vulnerability
Stephen Wah, head of the police union, called the collapse “the worst situation for emergency services”, stating how weak the digital infrastructure is and the risk of fully relying on single-purpose systems.
“The most important tool in communication operations,” he warned. “Finally, life can depend on it.”
