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Blackout ends

wl/th, dpa/afpdApril 21, 2009

The T-Mobile mobile phone network collapsed across most of Germany on Tuesday. The company, which has 39.1 million customers, says two faulty servers were responsible for the blackout.

https://p.dw.com/p/HbYQ
T-Mobile logo next to a red traffic light
Many T-Mobile customers across Germany were for hours unable to make callsImage: AP

The mobile phone network of Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile collapsed across most of Germany on Tuesday. The network went down at around 4 p.m., interrupting mobile phone and text message services across most of the country.

A T-Mobile spokesperson in Bonn said just after 8 p.m. that two of three servers responsible for allocating telephone numbers to corresponding SIM phone cards had gone down. The spokesperson said it's unclear why the servers malfunctioned, but said the company would work through the night to restore services.

It's unclear how many people were affected. Around 39.1 million people use T-Mobile's D1-network. The company confirmed earlier that many people had been calling in to report disturbances.