Leiria, Portugal, July 21, 2026 (Lusa) - Around 1,600 customers, most of them in the Leiria region, are still without fixed-line services, almost six months after Storm Kristin severely affected the area, the National Communications Authority (Anacom) reported on Tuesday.

«According to data recently provided by operators, there are around 1,600 fixed-line connections still affected following Storm Kristin (less than 1% of the fixed-line connections initially affected), with the Leiria region accounting for the highest number of these cases,» revealed the body responsible for regulating the communications sector and space-related activities.

On 24 April, around 20,000 customers were in this situation.

Anacom stated that the majority of the affected connections are expected to be restored within the next two weeks.

As for written complaints relating to the extreme weather events at the start of the year, Anacom had received, as of the 15th, around 2,200 (last April, the figure stood at around 1,200).

«The most common reasons for complaints relate to delays in restoring services and recurring faults after repairs, difficulties in contacting operators, billing for the period of service disruption, and the scheduling of technical interventions,» it explained.

Anacom noted that «it has dealt with almost all complaints received directly on this matter, at a rate of close to 99%», adding that «the remaining cases relate to more recent requests, which are still being processed».

When asked whether it had initiated any administrative offence proceedings against telecoms operators in connection with the bad weather, the regulator, chaired by Sandra Maximiano, clarified that «Anacom's teams were on the ground and were able to verify that electronic communications companies and infrastructure owners immediately mobilised human and technical resources for the recovery work».

However, given the «enormous geographical extent and severity of the damage, it was necessary to prioritise this work», with «the network backbone being restored first, in order to ensure that there is connectivity to the main towns and cities; next, the mobile networks were restored; and finally, the fixed-line network, where work is still ongoing».

The regulatory authority pointed out that «restoring the fixed-line network takes longer than that of the mobile network, as it is necessary to rebuild, to a large extent, the entire reach of the access network», house by house and premises by premises, it explained.

According to Anacom, «there are still several poles to be replaced and kilometres of cables running close to the ground, and work to restore this physical infrastructure is currently underway», even after service has been restored, «meaning that the recovery process is still ongoing».

«(…) Operators have been warning of numerous instances where repaired cables have been damaged or cut again as a result of land-clearing work, and are urging people to avoid touching or walking on them until the restoration work is complete», he noted.

The regulatory authority added that «it has submitted legislative proposals to the government aimed at strengthening the response capacity and resilience of the networks, including, in particular, proposals relating to the coordination of operations to clear and repair damage, to operations on private property and in areas managed by concessionaires, as well as to the prioritisation of customers for the purposes of restoring electricity services» .

«A legislative proposal was also submitted, including measures relating to temporary national ‘roaming'», and «it has also made several recommendations aimed at simplifying procedures for the installation of infrastructure», the regulator stated, noting that, on the legislative front, a decree had been published establishing an exceptional and temporary regime of administrative and financial simplification aimed at the reconstruction and rehabilitation of assets and infrastructure located in the municipalities affected by Storm Kristin.

When asked whether it could ensure that, in terms of communications, the system is more resilient, Anacom noted that the details available «do not allow us to conclude unequivocally that the electronic communications system is now more resilient than it was before Storm Kristin» on 28 January.

«It can, however, be stated that the country now has a more in-depth understanding of the vulnerabilities highlighted by this event, the critical points in the networks, the impacts, the constraints encountered in restoring services, the dependence of electronic communications networks on the electricity supply, the vulnerability of overhead lines and the need to strengthen operational coordination», it stated.

According to the regulator, «operators have been making investments aimed at strengthening the robustness and resilience of their networks, seeking to increase their capacity to respond to extreme weather events and other emergency situations», maintaining that Storm Kristin «has certainly underscored the importance of designing from the ground up and developing robust and resilient networks capable of withstanding this type of incident, which has been occurring with increasing frequency».

SR/ADB // ADB.

Lusa