13.08.2024

ANCOM has published The report on incidents affecting the security of electronic communications networks and services in 2023. The total number of incidents increased significantly compared to the previous year (+45%), from 341 incidents in 2022 to 497 in 2023. The report provides a detailed overview of the incidents reported by network and service providers, while also aiming to understand their causes, thus contributing to the identification of effective corrective and preventive measures.

Connections affected

In 2023, there was significant variation in the average number of connections affected per service type, with a decrease for fixed telephony and internet, a slight increase for the audiovisual media retransmission services and mobile phone and SMS, along with a doubling of the average number of connections affected for mobile internet services and mobile data transmissions, compared to the previous year.

Thus, the most affected services in 2023 were the mobile communications services: mobile telephony and SMS services – over 6 million connections, and the mobile internet and mobile data transmission - over 7 million connections. On average, one incident affected approximately 33 thousand connections, 65% more than in 2022. This significant increase was largely caused by the extreme weather events occurred during 2023. These incidents affected users from many counties simultaneously (the geographical distribution being extensive) and for a long period. In several cases, the repair interventions were hampered by closed roads, blocked by fallen trees or weather conditions that prevented quick intervention. Considering all these factors, the average number of affected connections is, both in percentage and in absolute value, much higher than in the previous year.

Causes of incidents

In 2023, the most common cause of the incidents remains external or involving a third party, with 421 incidents reported (compared to 298 incidents recorded the previous year). Incidents due to this cause mainly affect base stations and mobile controllers (168 incidents) and transmission media (249 incidents), highlighting the vulnerability of these resources to external factors. The transmission media were affected, mainly, due to problems occurred on partner networks. Such issues may include third party work, accidental fibre optic cuts or power outages. On the other hand, base stations and mobile controllers were affected, mainly, by power outages, caused mostly by interruptions in the power supply provided by the national electricity distribution networks. Both the number of incidents affecting the transmission media and the number of those affecting base stations and mobile controllers saw a significant increase - of at least 42% - compared to the values recorded in the previous year.

As a notable change from previous years: the next significant category of incidents is that of incidents caused by natural phenomena, with a total of 45 incidents recorded - 9 times more than in 2022.

Geographical distribution

The incidents affected one or more counties simultaneously: 276 incidents affected one county each, 206 affected connections in 2-9 counties simultaneously, 9 incidents affected 10-30 counties and 6 incidents impacted connections nationwide.  The distribution of incidents at national level shows that most incidents (77) affected Constanta county, while the counties with the fewest incidents were Brasov and Covasna, each with 12 incidents.  

Concerning the geographical distribution of incidents caused by power supply problems, Constanta county recorded the most such incidents (52), followed by Buzau (30). The county with the fewest reported electrical incidents was Covasna, where only 2 incidents were recorded.

It is expected that the effect of measures laid down in ANCOM Decision no. 70/2024 on electrical backup will be seen in the medium term, as the deadline for completing the implementations - August 2025 - approaches. These measures are not a universal cure, long-lasting electrical incidents requiring measures at the level of energy providers and better cooperation with other institutions and organisations with a view to creating mechanisms for sharing mobile power supply resources.

Duration of incidents

In 2023, the total duration of reported incidents was over 6,500 hours, twice the duration in 2022. The average duration of an incident also increased in 2023, lasting about 5 hours more than in 2022, i.e. over 13 hours of unavailability per incident, on average.

Incidents that lasted the longest were those caused by natural phenomena (with an average duration of about 31 hours), followed by incidents due to external causes (with an average duration of about 12 hours).

ANCOM Report

ANCOM’s Report on the significant incidents that affected the security of electronic communications networks and services in 2023 is based on data reported by the providers and is available, in Romanian, here.