Internet and the whole system of digital telecommunications risk the blackout because of energy rationing provided by European plan to limit electricity consumption. The alarm comes by the Italian Association of Internet Providers (Aiip), which speaks of a serious risk: the supply of electrical power intermittently could cause the shutdown of the so-called "transmission sites", triggering a domino effect All over telecommunications network that would make unable to access the internet and data stored in the cloud.
Internet provider: "We need a white list of meters"
To avoid this danger, the Association proposes to create a "white list" of meters which should be excluded from energy rationing plan. The suggestion is contained in a letter-appeal that Aiip sent to the Ministries of Ecological Transition and Economic Development, as well as to Agcom and the National Cybersecurity Agency. In fact, at stake is a service of strategic importance not only for the economy, but also for national security.
The Association also asks to create a technical table to elaborate as quickly as possible the exemption plan for the meters that support the internet providers' network.
Italian TLC network at risk of collapse: the words of the president of Aiip
“We have known for many months that, in the face of the growing concrete risk of rationing, the only way to calm the electricity peaks over the course of a day is to limit the meters by reducing the electricity power compared to that initially contracted – explains the President of AIIP, John Zorzoni – If this operation will find concrete realization without excluding the meters that feed the elements of network of the operators tlc, Italian network will meet a sure collapse. In fact, if the transmission sites (POPs, active cabinets, regeneration sites) are remotely limited to less than the power necessary for their operation, they will stop working patchily, causing a chain effect of national dimensions, with generalized interruptions that will have devastating and unpredictable consequences”.
According to the Association, it is essential that "the authorities achieve full awareness of the interactions between cloud-centric systems, and therefore of the possible repercussions that an indiscriminate rationing of electricity could cause".
