Storm halts trains and blacks out Internet service

16 August 2006

BARCELONA — A violent storm in Barcelona disrupted train services and  left thousands of Telefonica customers without access to the Internet for hours, authorities said on Wednesday.

Delays of up to 90 minutes hit train services in the city after the storm which blew up on Tuesday.

Torrential rain, lightning and thunder also left thousands of Telefonica ADSL clients without access to the Internet for hours.

The phone company said there had also been problems for clients who used the television service called Imagenio.

Customers who access the Internet using the IP Dinamico service were hit by the technical problem.

In all there are over two million clients who use this service.

But the company said far fewer were actually hit by the problem.

Playing down the problem, a company spokesman said this was a “rare” interruption to normal service.

Of Telefonica’s 3.5m ADSL clients, half use the IP Dinamico service.

The Federation of Consumers in Action said it had received complaints from Telefonica customers throughout Tuesday and urged the company to pay compensation.

The Association of Internet Users said those affected should record the time they were unable to use the service in order to make a claim.

[Copyright EFE  with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news