Cologne, January 5, 2026 – The ongoing power outage in southwest Berlin, now stretching into several days, has become one of the most severe disruptions to public services in Germany in recent years. Tens of thousands of households and numerous businesses remain without power as winter conditions and complex repair efforts continue to hamper restoration work.

Beyond the immediate loss of electricity, the outage is triggering far-reaching consequences. Traffic systems, heating, digital services, and telecommunications are severely affected, while hospitals, nursing homes, and other essential facilities are operating on emergency power supplies under growing logistical and organizational strain. The situation illustrates how a localized infrastructure failure can rapidly escalate into a systemic challenge.

In such prolonged crisis scenarios, reliable and independent communications are indispensable. They are essential to coordinate repair operations, maintain supply chains, manage disruptions, and support the rapid and safe restoration of services.

Germany’s nationwide 450 MHz radio network, purpose-built for operators of critical infrastructure, is designed precisely for these extreme conditions. Operating on a dedicated frequency for crisis-proof communications and completely isolated from the public internet, the network provides a high level of security, availability, and operational independence.

A key advantage of the 450 MHz network is its multi-day emergency power supply across the entire infrastructure, enabling continued communication even when public networks are partially or fully unavailable. Critical applications can be prioritized, ensuring that essential services remain connected during complex emergency operations. Development, operation, and network control are all based in Germany, further strengthening national resilience.

“The Berlin outage demonstrates that resilience must be built long before a crisis occurs,” said 450connect. “A secure, independent, and continuously available communications infrastructure is a cornerstone of protecting critical services and public safety during prolonged and extreme situations.”

Headquartered in Cologne, 450connect builds and operates Germany’s nationwide 450 MHz radio network for critical infrastructure operators. The network delivers highly available, fail-safe voice and data communications for the control, monitoring, and security of technical systems across energy supply, water management, transportation, logistics, and healthcare sectors. As the exclusive license holder of the 450 MHz frequency through 2040, 450connect is laying a vital foundation for digitalization, decarbonization, and long-term resilience in Germany’s systemically important industries.

450connect is backed by more than 70 energy supply companies, including Alliander, E.ON, a consortium of regional energy providers, and the 450 Utility Alliance, which represents numerous municipal utilities, energy and water suppliers, and EnBW subsidiary Netze BW.