Internet disruption comes to an end after cable repair

A NUMBER of Shetland households and businesses were back connected to broadband internet on Wednesday afternoon after a repair to a damaged subsea cable was completed.

Those affected have had no internet since a fault on the SHEFA-2 cable on Saturday 26 July, when a fishing boat is believed to have damaged the link near Orkney.

Many in Shetland and Orkney who lost connection will be breathing a sigh of relief after getting back online, particularly as signal for 4G mobile data can be patchy.

Shetland News, for instance, highlighted the case of one of the Lerwick post offices which had to close because it had no internet and was unable to use 4G mobile data as a back-up.

Northern Isles MP Alistair Carmichael has also criticised the customer service from some internet providers through the process.

Some providers were unaffected by the fault on the fibre optic cable, but others lost connection.

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The SHEFA-2 cable has a number of links – one between Faroe and Shetland, then another from Shetland to Orkney.

There is then another cable from Orkney to the Scottish mainland.

It is understood that some providers were able to re-route through the link from Shetland to Faroe following the damage.

A number of internet providers are signed to regulator Ofgem’s automatic compensation scheme, which should see nearly £10 paid per day of no service after the first 48 hours.

In a statement released on Wednesday evening, Shefa managing director Páll Højgaard Vesturbú said: “The repair of the damage to the SHEFA-2 cable between Orkney and Scotland has now been completed, and the cable was brought back into operation this afternoon.

“The fault occurred on the morning of Saturday 26 July, near Orkney.

“The repair took slightly longer than initially expected, partly due to poor weather conditions earlier in the week.”

There was also a significant internet outage in 2022 when the cable between Shetland and Orkney was similarly damaged.