Internet failure in Cologne: Chaos at Netcologne - what exactly happened?

Internet failure in Cologne: Chaos at Netcologne - what exactly happened?

On Wednesday, February 12, 2025, there was a massive failure of internet and telephone connections in Cologne and the surrounding area, which affected hundreds of thousands of Netcologne. The incident was first discussed by the company on various social media at 9 a.m., as users reported on the problems. The failure not only stopped access to online services, but also disturbed the daily work of many people who worked in the home office, and affected residents and numerous companies in the region.

according to KStA reported a major disorder in the morning, which was finally classified as "disorders in the core network" in the early afternoon. All systems were online again until around 5:15 p.m. after the company gradually initiated the recovery process since 4 p.m. The exact causes of the incident remained unclear, but Netcologne spoke of a "technical error in the core network". No external attacks were suspected, and the company was in contact with the Federal Office of Information Technology and the Federal Network Agency.

affected areas and companies

The disorder had far -reaching effects on many areas of life. Emergency calls under numbers 112 and 110 were not available in the Cologne urban area via the landline, which provided great concern. Urban online citizens' services were also not accessible due to the failure. Despite the considerable disorders, however, some industries continued to work, based on their own systems: Ford and the Kreissparkasse Cologne were able to maintain their services.

according to TAG24 were also affected by the digital scoreboards of Cologne (KVB), while the bus and city railway operations were also affected remained. The supply in urban hospitals was only partially affected, but patient care was still ensured. Business owners who rely on the Netcologne network were forced to switch their payments to bar transactions.

summary of the disorders

The internal failure at Netcologne led to a significant increase in interference reports on the Allestörungen.de platform from 8:53 a.m. The company's technical department worked with high pressure on the remedy of the problems, while the exact causes, such as physical infrastructure problems or human failure, took a back seat. Experts commented on the background and were concerned about the long duration of the failure and its extensive consequences.

like Network failure , network disorders can be caused by a wide range of causes, including network overloads or software and hardware problems. In the coming days, Netcologne provides a more comprehensive analysis to avoid similar incidents in the future and to inform users about the reliability of their services.