Nationwide disorder: Police and fire brigade fight with digital radio problems!

Nationwide disorder: Police and fire brigade fight with digital radio problems!

On May 6, 2025, a nationwide disorder of digital radio was in Germany, which is of crucial importance for the police, fire brigade and emergency services. This disruption was confirmed by Federal Ministry of the Interior and affects numerous federal countries. The exact cause of the problems remains unclear for the time being, since both a technical defect and a possible hacker attack are examined. This was confirmed by a spokesman for the Digitalfunk (BDBOS).

Digitalfunk BOS, which covers 99.2% of Germany with over 5,000 base stations, is the central means of communication for the security forces. Due to the disturbance, emergency services in various federal states, including Berlin, Saxony, Hamburg, Cologne and Munich, had to fall back on alternative communication systems. The Berlin fire brigade reported impairments, but remains able to act.

affected federal states and reactions

The Cologne police also reported a failure of digital radio that lasted about 15 minutes but has now been remedied. There were no specific failures in North Rhine-Westphalia, as the Interior Ministry informed. Despite the disorders, emergency numbers 110 and 112 ran over other systems and were therefore not affected.

The union of the police (GdP) expressed concerns about the susceptibility of the digital infrastructure and underlined the importance of stable communication skills for security assignments. In many affected federal states, such as Bremen, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, the disorder was different, but in all affected regions, the emergency services were forced to switch to alternative means of communication in order to remain operational.

technical background information

The system of digital radio BOS has proven to be extremely reliable in the past, with an average network availability of 99.97%. This means less than a minute downtime per day, which can be decisive in crisis situations. Another advantage of digital radio is the laboratory security and the high voice quality, which are essential for the operations of the police and emergency services.

Although the disorder brought about challenges for many authorities, the system showed its flexibility. Emergency services in the Berlin fire brigade and other organizations were quickly able to switch to alternative means of communication to ensure the continuity of their work.

The causes of the disorder are currently analyzed with the highest priority in order to identify and remedy possible technical defects or security incidents as quickly as possible. This is particularly important in order to maintain trust in the digital infrastructure of the security authorities and to avoid future disorders.