Connectivity / Lerwick post office ‘stranded’ with no internet and poor 4G signal
THE OWNER of the Freefield Post Office in Lerwick says the business is “losing hundreds” of pounds every day while being unable to offer a postal service during the ongoing internet outage.
Brian Smith also said the 4G signal at the shop is not strong enough as a back-up to run the Post Office service, leaving him “stranded”.
Many properties in the Northern Isles have been without internet since Saturday 26 July when a subsea telecoms cable was damaged by a fishing boat off Orkney.
The latest update from cable operator SHEFA is that the repair vessel Cable Vigilance is on site and that the job should be completed by Thursday.
Managing director Pall Vesturbu said the bad weather had caused some delays.
Shetland Telecom said this morning (Wednesday) that the cable could be fixed and back in service later today.free
While a number of internet providers are unaffected by the damage, such as BT, there are still many that are off in Shetland, including Vodafone.
It is not just households affected, with some businesses losing connectivity too.
One of those is the Freefield Post Office, which Smith runs in his Clocktower premises at the Toll Clock Shopping Centre.
He has been unable to open the post office part of his business since the outage more than a week ago, explaining that the postal system operates with a different internet provider.
Smith believes other Post Office branches in Shetland and Orkney will have been affected, and while some can use 4G mobile data as a back-up, the poor signal in that part of Lerwick and the extra demand in town at the moment means Freefield cannot operate.
“The shop has a BT connection, and that’s working absolutely fine – it’s just the Post Office side of the business is just not able to do anything,” Smith told Shetland News.
“So it’s leaving us stranded.
“Places like Sandwick and Scalloway, they’re using the 4G back-up and they’re able to transact.
“They’ve obviously got a better 4G reception in their area than we do in the heart of Lerwick, which is pretty ridiculous.”
Smith highlighted that while he cannot make any income from the Post Office side of the shop right now, he still has to pay out staff wages and other expenses.
“That means every day that I’m not able to operate I’m losing hundreds,” he explained.
“It’s putting a serious strain on the business.”
Smith said the Post Office has provided reassurance there will be a “goodwill” payment after the fault has been resolved, but “I don’t know whether that’s going to be enough to cover the losses”.
It is a doubly frustrating for Smith, given that his home broadband is also off – but the business owner has benefitted from some “community spirit” in the form of a neighbour who has allowed him to access his WiFi.
He is a Vodafone broadband customer at home, and said he has had to rely on updates from the likes of Shetland News to know what is going on.
He said the lack of communication from the provider shows a “complete disregard” for its customers.
Meanwhile Smith said the outage – which follows similar cable damage in 2022 – highlights the fragility of island connectivity.
“We’re being pushed more and more into a digital age where you have to use the internet for all communications and connectivity,” he said.
“And then if something happens like this, it just shows how fragile that reliance is leaving us.”
Smith said his shop has been passing people onto other branches, including in Sandwick and Scalloway, but there remains concern for those unable to travel.
He highlighted how people continue to use post offices not just for sending mail but for accessing cash and pensions too.
“Post Offices are still an essential community service for a lot of these different things,” he said.
“But unfortunately, if they can’t travel then there’s nothing that they can do.”
The Post Office has been contacted for comment.
Many broadband providers are signed up to regulator Ofcom’s automatic compensation scheme, including Vodafone.
This means customers should receive £9.98 in compensation per day of no service, after the first 48 hours.
TalkTalk, meanwhile, has come under fire from Northern Isles MP Alistair Carmichael.
He alleged that the provider has been “dismissive and evasive, shifting blame and refusing to engage with local people about the problems in their service”.
“Having refused all attempts to meet virtually and discuss the failures in their response, I would strongly urge TalkTalk to send a representative to the isles in the coming days to account for their actions – or lack thereof,” Carmichael said.
“I suspect that many islanders will remember the sort of treatment they have had from their service providers when it comes to renewing contracts in the months and years to come. These are the moments where business reputations are made, or damaged beyond repair.”
A TalkTalk spokesperson said in response: “As a Wi-Fi provider, we know how disruptive outages can be and we hope to see everyone back online as soon as possible.
“Unfortunately, since we don’t own the damaged infrastructure, we are not overseeing the ongoing repair efforts, but we understand the inconvenience this has caused for our customers and want to support them through this process.
“We urge any affected TalkTalk customers to please get in touch so that we can provide updates as they’re made available to us.”
Carmichael meanwhile added that Vodafone was “frankly unprepared, but have taken steps in recent days to respond and to improve their communications, after some gentle encouragement”.
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