Broadband wilts in the heat

THE ROYAL wedding and the hot weather has been slowing down broadband speeds throughout Shetland on Friday.

While communities around Shetland were enjoying street parties to join the celebrations in London, others were having difficulty watching the proceedings over the internet.

Ian Brown, at Shetland Broadband, said that the current spell of high pressure that was bringing out the sunshine was also disrupting the microwave link connecting the islands telecommunications to the rest of the world.

“It’s the same story we have had for the past 30 years that I have been in Shetland,” he said.

He said that anyone connected to the Cable & Wireless network used by Shetland Islands Council and the community broadband project in Vidlin and Fetlar would have experienced problems on Friday.

BT customers are also likely to have been affected.

The problem, he said was “troposcatter”, when layers of hot and cold air reflect and confuse radio signals and lead to some transmissions travelling further than normal while others cut out.

However Shetland Telecom development manager Marvin Smith said the number of people trying to watch Wills and Kate tie the knot at Westminster Abbey over the internet would have added to the problem.

“Everybody is having internet problems. That’s partly due to the weather affecting the signal, but undoubtedly the amount of people going on iPlayer to watch the wedding is putting a big strain on the system,” he said.

Mr Brown said experiences like this demonstrated the importance of Shetland Telecom’s £1 million connection to the Faroese fibre optic cable that should be complete in June.

“Shetland Telecom is the solution to the microwave fading problem and the sooner the fibre optic cable comes in the better!”