Winds of up to 60mph battered the countries, causing havoc with the UK and Ireland’s connectivity. Figures from Ookla suggest that mobile download speeds were 78% in Ireland and 63% in Scotland and Northern Ireland at the onset of the storm.
The storm impacted fixed broadband 160,000 premises in Ireland, binging down more than 900 mobile sites; while in the UK, network outages were high with Scotland and Northern Ireland hit the hardest.
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Éowymn was the most severe storm to hit Ireland and the UK to date and the latest in a string of storms, following Aitor, Ashley, Quiteria, Caetano, Bert, Conall, Darragh, Dorothea, Bianca, and Diana in the past six months.
The latest record-breaking storm — which included wind speeds of 112 mph in Ireland at one point — significantly degraded mobile network performance and reduced overall network availability as downed trees damaged to overhead fibre cabling along roads.

Further compounding connectivity efforts were power outages, which were at “unprecedented levels according to Ireland’s state electricity supplier, ESB Networks.
Luke Kehoe, industry analyst for Europe at Ookla suggested that Éowyn’s impact exposed critical vulnerabilities in both the the UK and Ireland’s telecoms infrastructure, particularly power backup capabilities.
According to Ookla's analysis, the UK's mobile infrastructure remains notably under-prepared, with only about 20% of mobile sites having backup functionality lasting more than 15 minutes, and a mere 5% capable of withstanding a six-hour power loss.
Kehoe highlighted the contrast with regions like the Nordics and Australia, which have implemented comprehensive infrastructure hardening measures. In Ireland, the limited deployment of battery backup solutions — typically providing only four to eight hours of power where available — has left operators heavily reliant on stationary and mobile generators during emergencies.
“While mobile generators have high operating costs, which limit their feasibility for prolonged or widespread deployment across the mobile site grid in Ireland, they offer operators valuable deployment flexibility,” Kehoe wrote.
Data from Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence highlighted the need to be proactive, showing that Eir’s use of mobile generators in County Cork enabled a sharp recovery in its Consistency score, rebounding from 59% on the day of the storm to 95% the following day, outpacing other operators in the area.
“Mobile operators can proactively position generators at key sites based on forecasted storm tracks and leverage distributed fuel dumps across the country to enable rapid refuelling during post-storm operations,” Kehoe added.
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