Brussels, 28/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - In a new report, the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) states that national roaming can be a way to remedy mobile network outages. “We have investigated national roaming as a solution for mitigating outages. This can improve security and resilience of European communications networks, and ensure that European citizens can communicate at all times, also during major outages”, said Udo Helmbrecht, ENISA Executive Director.
ENISA reiterates the desire of European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes for European citizens always to be connected: “Telecom affects everything and users are developing massive expectations of it. Markets must function, devices must function, networks must function - and investment needs to happen”. Besides the fact that outages frustrate consumers in their demand to be connected anywhere anytime, they also have a serious impact on the economy as all companies use mobile networks to manage their business. In 2012, half of the network outages reported by member states occurred on mobile networks - outages that sometimes lasted for several days. According to ENISA, national roaming can be a fallback solution during severe network outages, allowing subscribers of the affected operator to roam on other mobile networks in their country which are not affected by the breakdown. In its report, ENISA examines the effects of national roaming in terms of security and resilience, and looks at how it is possible to use it by assessing its pros and cons. (IL/transl.fl)