Vodafone Netherlands has managed to restore 2G and 3G services to around half the customers affected by a major fire at its network centre in Rotterdam. The mobile operator said restoring services was taking longer than expected, as it must manually connect emergency facilities to the GSM radio network, while 3G traffic is routed through other locations. The fire in the early hours of 04 April meant that around a quarter of its 5.3 million customers in the Netherlands could not make calls, send SMS or use mobile internet. Some of the customers affected outside the Rotterdam region were routed over the network in Amsterdam. Restoring services is expected to take the rest of 05 April, and 3G services will be affected for a number of days thereafter. Customers roaming abroad are also experiencing problems, the operator said. For business customers, some fixed lines may still be having problems receiving calls, and only around half of M2M operations have been restored.
