Dutch antennas damaged by wind storm

The storm that hit the Netherlands on 18 January damaged antenna installations at a number of locations, GSM Helpdesk reported. In some cases, antennas failed, resulting in malfunctions and poorer accessibility. Various complaints came in on the matter, also via tweets.

In some regions of the Netherlands, people have experienced problems with calling, texting and surfing since the storm. Telecom providers can remotely see which antennas failed and have sent teams to solve the issues. In some cases, antennas have been so damaged that they cannot be immediately repaired. Customers in the vicinity will therefore continue to experience connection problems.

Emergency response centres were flooded on 18 January with thousands of reports and requests for assistance. Several times, NL-Alerts were sent, asking people to call the 112 number for real emergencies. Non-urgent reports had to be reported to the municipality at 0900-8844, or at a later date.