“Storms? What could have been better were the first 8 to 12 hours”, says NOS CEO

As storms that devastated the center of the country in January large part of the networks and left thousands of families without a networka portion of which has not yet seen connections reset. Still, from NOS’s perspective, “there was nothing better to do”.

The guarantee comes from the CEO of the telecommunications company, Miguel Almeida, in a press conference held this Wednesday, March 4, after the presentation of the financial results of the company in 2025. He himself admits that the period immediately after the bad weather did not go as smoothly as he would have liked. However, he says, from then on, the company did everything it could.

“What could have gone better were the first 8 to 12 hours” after the passage of Kristin’s depression through Leiria, that is, the immediate response. Furthermore, “there is no resilience learning”, as it would be impossible for the network to have resisted the winds. “No operator in the world” could handle it, he stressed.

NOS saw us “kilometers of destroyed fiber” and recognizes that the resulting losses total “millions of euros”but there is still no concrete estimate. In any case, the person responsible excludes the possibility of asking for public support to cover the amount. “We are not going to ask the government to pay for the losses”, he guarantees.

At this point, there are “less than five thousand” customers still affected by the failures. To restore the entire network, “another two to three months” should still be needed, recognizes Miguel Almeida.

There is a lack of “common sense” in the discussion on the topic

The last few weeks have brought a public debate on network infrastructuresparticularly with regard to their resilience. Businesspeople, political leaders and others addressed the matter, following the storms. Still, from the perspective of the top boss of NOS, the discussion is not being carried out in the best way.

“It’s an issue that has been discussed a lot but rarely with common sense.“, he said, although without mentioning specific names.

Furthermore, the very removes any type of responsibility for failures in SIRESPthe exclusive communications network of the Portuguese State which, remember, failed again after the Kristin depression, as it had already failed during the Blackout. This is intended for secure emergency communications and relies on NOS for critical support essential to operability.