Cable repairs may only be completed on Thursday due to storm

REPAIRS to the damaged Shefa-2 subsea internet cable may only be completed on Thursday now due to the weather.

The Faroese company which owns the cable, Shefa, said Storm Floris could delay works to fix the damage.

Repair vessel Cable Vigilance is currently at the scene of the break, roughly 9km off the east coast of Orkney, with work previously expected to be concluded on Wednesday.

But Shefa managing director Páll Højgaard Vesturbú told Shetland News that stormy weather conditions could see the completion of the repairs pushed back to Thursday.

Hundreds of people in Shetland and Orkney have been left without internet since the early hours of Saturday 26 July, meaning they could be without connection for up to 12 days.

Vodafone, Sky and TalkTalk customers have been among the worst affected by the outage.

Vodafone UK had told MP Alistair Carmichael it expected the repairs to be carried out by Sunday, and that its customers could even have internet before then.

Advertisement7 of 10

However that has not been forthcoming, leaving people and businesses in the isles increasingly frustrated.

The disruption has caused a number of issues for Shetland businesses, and it comes on the back of people in the North Isles and the North Mainland also losing mobile signal and 4G last month.

The Toll Clock post office has had to close, and companies ranging from Shetland Home Co to the charity The Bop Shop have asked customers to use cash for payments because of card payment problems.

A fishing vessel is believed to have damaged the Shefa-2 subsea cable in the early hours of Saturday 26 July, with the owner of the vessel reporting the damage to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency on Sunday.