In a crisis situation, it is important that the telephony works. But when it got to 40 degrees Celsius and the power went out, Telia's mobile network in Älvsbyn was also knocked out.
Not just parts, but the entire municipality's telephony.
"This incident shows the vulnerabilities that exist in society, and first and foremost how dependent we are on a functioning electricity supply," says Telia's Chief Technology Officer Staffan Åkesson.
Now the battery needs to be replaced
Mobile telephony is completely dependent on the electricity grid to function. However, telecom companies are obliged to have batteries in their masts so that they can withstand one hour of power outages in urban areas, and four hours in sparsely populated areas.
Even that could not cope with Telia's mast in Älvsbyn, which led to the municipality's entire telephony being knocked out.
"We have replaced the battery and are investigating what caused this," says Staffan Åkesson, technical manager at Telia.
Old document had the correct number
Both the municipality and the county administrative board tried to contact Telia in the emergency situation and draw the company's attention to the problems, but without succeeding in reaching the right person.
Later, the county administrative board found the correct phone number in a document from 2018.
"You can compare it to Vattenfall, which goes out every six months with an updated list of phone numbers that the municipalities should call," says Anders Öhlund, Director of Emergency Preparedness at the County Administrative Board of Norrbotten.
Investigation to improve cooperation
However, according to Telia's technical manager, there are established communication channels that the county administrative board should have used.
Here Telia explain the situation in the clip above.