Spain's Massive Blackout

Lanzarote, 17:30, 28 April 2025.

The waiter breaks the news: “Cash only, the card terminals are dead.”

I glance at my phone: No Service. Restaurant Wi-Fi? Gone. TV behind the bar? Frozen!

We still have electricity. But Mainland Spain, over 1,300 km away, has just lost most of its grid.

The Canary Islands pipe phone, data and payment traffic through fibre to the Spanish mainland and somehow the power blackout caused the Island's digital life to vanish.

It's kind of crazy. I would have posted this earlier, but obviously I couldn't. The focus in the media has been on electricity, but there has been little mention of the digital vulnerability we face in situations like this.

Could you survive without cash and a smartphone? Why am I asking this. I was born before all this tech changed our lives. Crazy, isn't it? Any thoughts?

Music: Trinity by Toby Tranter, Epidemic Sounds