Community / Cable repairs continue to cause outages for some
It is understood that repairs on the cable should be completed, depending on weather conditions, by lunchtime on Sunday
CONNECTIVITY in some Shetland households and businesses is still being disrupted as repairs continue on the damaged subsea telecoms cable off the South Mainland.
A spokesperson for Openreach, which maintains the UK’s broadband network, said on Thursday that repairs were underway.
They said there will be some disruption for a “small number of broadband users”.
However, there are reports of numerous internet outages – with Shetland Islands Council leader Emma Macdonald tweeting on Friday that it is causing “significant disruption and challenges”.
It is understood that repairs on the cable should be completed, depending on weather conditions, by lunchtime on Sunday.
The council said it understands that users who have lost their internet connection have their service provided through companies who do not have resilient connections. This means they are not able to access the undamaged fibre, and are reliant on the ongoing repairs to restore their service.
For the council, there are problems affecting some telecare and community alarms, including some which are delivered through landlines (analogue lines).
Staff have been contacting clients directly, but we would ask families and friends to check in with elderly or vulnerable relatives to ensure that their phone lines are working.
If there are any concerns, people should contact duty social work on 01595 744468 in working hours or 01595 695611 during out of hours, and over the weekend.
Busta House Hotel in the North Mainland posted on social media that it had no internet, and that bookings had to be made by phone – while cash payments are preferred.
Meanwhile over in Lerwick design company Artmachine said it is unable to respond to emails.
Earlier in the week Openreach explained that for technical reasons the temporary fix in place after last Thursday’s blackout cannot be maintained while permanent repairs on the SHEFA-2 cable are carried out.
Broadband users in Shetland through providers like Sky and Vodafone have reported disruption since Wednesday, although BT customers should be unaffected.
There have also been reports of some disruption to phone services.
The ship Cable Vigilance arrived earlier this week a mile off Troswick, to the east of the South Mainland, to commence with repairs of the damaged section of the subsea cable.
A notice to mariners said repairs are expected to be completed by 1 November, but it was only last updated on Tuesday.
It added though that the cable is unburied and is of high risk to fishing vessels in the area.
The fault on the SHEFA-2 cable off Shetland came after two breaks in the north section of the network, between the isles and Faroe. All incidents are believed to have involved fishing vessel gear.
The cable network is owned by Faroese Telecom, and it links Faroe to the UK mainland via Shetland and Orkney.
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