It is a response to questions from MPs. Members asked what the consequences are for national security, given that the masts are part of the critical national infrastructure and whether there is any reason to scale up the security of the masts in order to guarantee security of supply.

"In addition to regular transmission masts, 112 and C2000 are also part of the critical (vital) national infrastructure," the minister writes. “All C2000 masts will receive extra security in the coming period”.

For the time being, the fires may have had an impact in at least one case. As far as is known, this did not lead to personal accidents. The risk of reduced accessibility from 1-1-2 is normally limited. When there is no coverage of the own mobile operator in an area, in case of an emergency the mobile phone  call to 112 automatically switches to another provider. However, if the physical distance to the replacement mast is too great, there is a chance that 1-1-2 will be unreachable via mobile telephony. The operational impact of the fires for C2000 is still limited.

The fires come as telecom providers in the Netherlands are facing increased public animosity at the construction of new 5G towers over unconfirmed health concerns.

Article appeared first in Verbinding