Municipal websites across Norway experience outages for several hours before resolution

On Wednesday afternoon, numerous municipal websites across the country experienced outages for several hours. The issue has now been resolved, and more than 60 municipal sites are back online.

According to a support representative from Custom Publish, the company provides publishing solutions for approximately 100 municipalities and relies on an internet supplier that encountered problems. The outage was confirmed by Global Connect, the service provider responsible for the servers, which noted that the issue was identified around 4 PM.

The cause of the failure remains unclear, and there has been no contact with Global Connect regarding the matter.

In Tjeldsund, local officials are monitoring the situation but are prepared to implement alternative plans if the disruptions last longer than expected. Tjeldsund’s mayor communicated through text that updates had been posted on social media to inform residents about the error. For the time being, they are waiting before making additional preparations.

The issue affected the websites of at least 60 municipalities using Custom Publish. The mayor of Ibestad indicated that they expect the websites to be restored shortly, but are relying on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram as temporary communication channels with the community.

Although many municipalities were impacted, larger cities such as Tromsø, Trondheim, Oslo, and Bergen maintained their website functionality. Custom Publish also provides web services to various organizations, including crime prevention and community health services, which were also affected during the outage.