What Spain's Mobile Network Decree Means for Data Centres
When a widespread blackout affected Spain and Portugal in late April last year, the impact reached far beyond the electricity grid.
Offices closed, flights and rail services stopped and mobile connections disappeared almost immediately.
The outage was one of Europe's most severe in decades and exposed just how closely digital infrastructure depends on a reliable electricity supply.
As power failed, systems that support communications and digital services also came under pressure, showing how significant the need truly is for resilient infrastructure that remains operational during prolonged outages.
More than a year later, Spain is responding with new rules designed to strengthen the resilience of critical digital infrastructure.
Oscar Lopez, the Spanish Government's Digital Transformation Minister, announced on 25 June a decree requiring mobile operators to guarantee at least four hours of network coverage for most of the population during power cuts.
A decree is Spain's strongest legislative tool because it can take effect without the standard parliamentary process.
Using it in this case reflects the importance the government places on maintaining digital connectivity during emergencies.
Data centres come into scope
Although the core focus of the decree is on mobile operators, it really reaches much further across the digital infrastructure ecosystem.
Alongside telco providers, it also applies to submarine cables, satellite systems, internet exchange points and data centres.
This wider scope reflects the connected nature of digital services.
As data centres support the network infrastructure itself, the source of outages all circle back to what is the true cause behind it all: downtime in data centres.
As we know, the key digital infrastructure provides the computing capacity that underpins communications, business operations and public services.
Spain's regulation applies to operators serving more than 500,000 users or generating more than US$56.8m in annual revenue, bringing many of Spain's largest digital infrastructure operators within its scope.
The implementation of this law will be phased rather than immediate.
The government requires coverage to reach half of Spain's population during the first 12 months, increasing to 65% in the second year and 75% in the third.
The decree is expected to be ratified by the end of 2026.
However, not every facility is expected to meet the same resilience target.
Standard mobile base stations are required to maintain four hours of operation without grid power. Regional network management centres, which oversee traffic across wider areas, must remain operational for at least 12 hours.
The most critical control centres face the highest requirement, with operators expected to guarantee 24 hours of continuous operation without external electricity.
During last year's blackout, some parts of the Iberian Peninsula remained without power for around 16 hours, making these resilience targets consistent with the scale of disruption experienced during the incident.
Backup power becomes a priority
For data centre operators, the decree reinforces familiar operational priorities around business continuity and backup power.
Keeping facilities online during a prolonged grid failure depends on energy storage systems, generators or hybrid backup solutions capable of maintaining critical services until electricity supplies return.
Expanding those capabilities across thousands of sites represents a major investment.
Larger battery installations will be needed in many locations while others are likely to require generators that activate automatically when grid electricity fails.
The phased implementation reflects both the technical complexity and financial cost involved in strengthening infrastructure across the country.
It also mirrors established practices within the data centre industry, where facilities are designed around redundancy and continuous availability.
Maintaining digital services depends on layers of resilience that reduce the risk of disruption when external power is lost.
Telco operators were consulted during the drafting process, including the likes of Telefónica and MasOrange, including and they raised concerns over both cost and practicality.
The government subsequently reduced some targets to make implementation more achievable within the proposed timetable.
Digital infrastructure and national resilience
The decree shows how closely energy systems and digital infrastructure now depend on each other.
Energy providers rely on digital platforms to monitor electricity networks, dispatch power and operate control rooms.
At the same time, communications services depend on resilient power systems to remain available when electricity supplies are disrupted.
The result is greater recognition that data centres and telco infrastructure form part of the same essential national ecosystem.
Spain's emergency response also depends on that resilience.
The country's 112 emergency service relies on mobile networks remaining operational so ambulances, fire services and police can continue coordinating their response during major incidents.
Under the new rules, emergency call centres are also required to develop their own resilience strategies, including backup communication channels capable of operating if primary systems fail.
Spain is not alone in this act.
Norway and Australia are among the countries that also recognise telco infrastructure as essential national infrastructure alongside energy systems.
Following the blackout on 28 April 2025, Spain's Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, said: "All the necessary measures will be taken to ensure that this does not happen again."
