Yesterday, January 19, 2026, a little before 8 in the morning, I was already in front of the computer preparing for the work day. I had been carrying out a task for a few minutes when suddenly, surprise: the websites I was trying to load in the browser did not load.
The Wi-Fi connection had been cut offso I tried the network connection. Nothing. My wife, who was also online at the time, confirmed it to me. We didn’t have internet at home. Taking a look at the HGU router we use (we are O2 customers) I found two red lights flashing. I turned it off and on again, but the problem persisted. This looks bad, I thought.
I immediately called O2 customer service, at 1551, and found the second surprise: they don’t answer until nine in the morning unless the phone is lost or stolen.
Fortunately, the mobile data connection was still working, so I went to it: I shared that connection from my mobile to my work computer through tethering and I got to work without too many problems: the bandwidth of 5G connections is already more than enough for this type of scenario, so essentially I didn’t notice the problem too much.
Shortly after nine in the morning I called O2 again, and a person answered the call to whom I told the problem. As soon as I did it, he told me that there was a service interruption in my area —”Oh, is it in my area, isn’t it something just mine?” I asked—and that they were working on solving it.
“In the meantime,” he said, “We are going to offer you an unlimited data bonus both to your line and to all those associated with your contract. The person who assisted me also told me that the company would notify me by message when the incident was resolved.
Some time later I received that confirmation message, and I continued working with the mobile data thinking that the problem would be resolved in a few hours.
It’s been more than 24 hours and I’m still the same.
The works on the A-5, recurring culprits
Throughout yesterday I checked from time to time to see if the lights on the router changed, and just in case I restarted it to regain normal connectivity as soon as possible. There was no way.
Source: Diario de Madrid.
When several hours had passed and we still had no solution to the problem, I looked for some more information about the cause and quickly found an article in ADSLZone commenting on it: the underground works of the A-5who had left without internet an unknown number of Movistar and O2 clients. Those affected belong to the southwest area of Madrid —Aluche, Campamento, Colonia Jardín, Pozuelo—, and I was one of them.
This latest incident is not the first of its kind, and in fact there have already been cuts, for example in july, in August and in November. In all of them the reason was the underground works on the A-5, although at no time has the specific reason why these cuts occurred been clarified.
This work is producing other side effects such as the saturation of Metro line 10, the dust and the deteriorated air quality for the residents of the surrounding areas, or traffic jams on the roads enabled in an extraordinary way throughout the underground.
However, it is evident that the project is moving forward, and a few days ago the two sections of tunnel were connected executed to date. The tunnel is expected to be completed in Aprilalthough the vehicles They will not be able to circulate through it until the end of the year. Let’s hope that from now on there will be no more outages and the rest of the problems will also be mitigated.
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