Swisscom boss Urs Schaeppi has not found a single cause for the four network outages in the past five months. He explains them by the complexity of the network in an interview with SonntagsBlick: “there will always be breakdowns”.
“The causes of breakdowns are different. The only common component is that they occur during interventions in the networks. But these interventions are absolutely necessary due to the volumes of data in constant progression and the needs which increase every day, in particular in terms of security.
The causes of failures are different. The only common component is that they occur during interventions in networks.
Urs Schaeppi, boss of Swisscom
We can compare the interventions in the networks to a change of bicycle wheel during the race, explains Urs Schaeppi: “each of these approximately 4000 weekly interventions involves a risk”.
During the last crash, an unexpected software problem caused an overload. “We tested, but in this case the error could not be detected during the tests,” adds Urs Schaeppi. Real situations cannot be tested to their full extent.
We tested, but in this case the error could not be detected during the tests.
Urs Schaeppi, boss of Swisscom
Society must learn that communication systems are always more efficient, but that breakdowns cannot be excluded. Swisscom must ensure that errors occur as little as possible and that the consequences are as small as possible.
After the last failure, a taskforce was set up to deal only with the stability of the network. The Federal Office of Communications is also examining the series of outages and a commission of the National Council wants to hear the heads of the former state-owned company in late June.
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