Method, device and program for validation of sleeping cells in a communications network

A detecting device for detecting a malfunction in a cell of a telecommunication network, the cell being adapted to serve a plurality of user devices identified by user identities and handling signaling and/or data traffic between the network and the user devices, the detecting device comprising:

• a detector adapted to detect a lack of traffic in the cell,
• a selector adapted to select at least one user identity identifying a user device based on the detector detecting the lack of traffic in the cell, wherein the user device is in a coverage area of the cell,
• a paging controller adapted to send a paging message to the user device identified by the at least one selected user identity, and
• an actuator adapted to validate a malfunction of the cell in case no response message is sent by the user device to said paging message.