Managing Communication during a Blackout:

New innovaphone White Paper on the Emergency Communications Kit for States and Municipalities

Sindelfingen, May 15^th, 2024 - A prolonged electricity blackout would undoubtedly have drastic consequences on municipal facilities. Precautions can be taken by putting detailed emergency concepts in place and installing a communication infrastructure that remains functional even in the event of a crisis. In its new white paper, innovaphone, the specialist for work and communication solutions, manifests how federal states, cities or municipalities – all operators of critical infrastructures (CRITIS) – can continue to function and remain unaffected in the event of a blackout.

There are many causes for a widespread electricity blackout. These may include, amongst others: natural disasters such as earthquakes or floods, unintentional disruptions, for example due to civil engineering work or the disconnection of lines resulting in grid overloads, as well as deliberate attacks on electricity supply. Although experts consider the risk of a blackout to be rather low, cities and municipalities are obliged to prepare appropriate crisis contingency plans – including resilient emergency communication systems to cushion at least part of the drastic consequences of a blackout.

The new innovaphone White Paper shows what requirements the communication systems in the CRITIS sector, i.e. in institutions such as cities, counties or municipalities which have an important significance for the state community, should comply with for crisis contingency planning. These requirements include features such as mobility, compact system size and low energy consumption as well as the possibility of setting up a redundant system or high availability of the system. As the innovaphone PBX can be installed completely on-premises and does not require any additional servers or other external components from the cloud, it is also self-sufficient in the event of a crisis. When things have to move quickly, simple installation and intuitive operation are also highly important. Telephony, videoconferencing or chat functionalities should be available to the relevant users quickly and easily at the click of a button – and all of this should be completely GDPR-compliant, as security should continue to be a top priority even during a blackout.

The white paper “Managing Communication during a Blackout – An Emergency Communications Kit for States and Municipalities”  can be downloaded here free of charge.