Copyright shetlandtimes
Internet services should have been restored last night when cable repairs were finally completed - but many customers said they were still without a connection. Faroese Telecom, which is responsible for the Shefa-2 cable, said the repair work off Orkney had gone ahead as planned and services had been repaired. Shetland Telecom also confirmed that its route had switched from the backup route to the direct route, also indicating that the repair was completed. But many customers were still reporting issues as of late last night. Shetland Telecom has advised anyone without service to contact their provider for more information. Services for many customers have been down for more than three weeks, after Storm Amy caused the cable to be damaged off Amy. It was the second time in three months the cable has been out of action - each time causing widespread disruption. Although some providers, including Shetland Teleom, have access to a back-up cable, which goes north from the isles to Faroe, others are reliant on the direct route via Orkney to the mainland, which is where the fault has twice occurred. The outage initially caused chaos at Sumburgh Airport as flights had to be cancelled while the communications were down. It has also affected post office services, business and many households. The latest disruption has been the most prolonged yet, as the repairs proved more complicated to carry out due to the proximity to the shore. Rough weather over the weekend also delayed the work, as the vessel Cable Vigilance was unable to proceed as planned. Isles politicians Alistair Carmichael and Beatrice Wishart have organsied a “telecommunications resilience” sunmit with the aim of prevent more chaos being caused by subsea cable breaks. The Scottish and UK governments, Faroese Telecom, telecommunications regulator Ofcom, Openreach, TalkTalk, Vodafone, Sky Group and Highland Broadband have all been invited to send representatives to the summit,. Mr Carmichael said: “This summit is about demanding basic accountability to our communities from internet providers and from the regulator Ofcom. “Telecoms resilience is not a luxury – in 2025 it should be considered a basic requirement. It is what is expected in any major city so we ought to be able to expect it here in the isles as well. “After the first cable break in the summer I challenged telecommunications providers to improve their service and their responsiveness. “Some progress has been made but the fallout from this month’s disruption makes it perfectly clear just how much further there still is to go. The summit is will take place at Islesburgh Community Centre on Friday, 21st November, with the public session starting at 1pm. Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.
