Connectivity / ‘Complex’ cable repairs likely to take two weeks, Vodafone tells customers
REPAIRS to the damaged SHEFA-2 subsea cable are “complex” and will take around two weeks to complete, Vodafone has told its Shetland customers.
The company said the damage had occurred in shallow waters, and would require “specialist equipment and a team who are currently on their way from Calais”, in France.
Once they arrive at the scene of the fault – just off Orkney – the repair will take “approximately two weeks to complete”.
Vodafone told one customer, who spoke to Shetland News, that it would be sending them a mobile WiFi device free of charge, topped up with 30 days of free data.
The update comes nine days after damage was again caused to the SHEFA-2 cable, leaving Vodafone, Sky and TalkTalk customers without broadband.
It echoed similar disruption in July and August following damage to a different section to Faroese Telecom’s SHEFA-2 cable, thought then to have been caused by a fishing boat.
Many customers in the isles have begun the switch-over to other broadband providers following the latest disruption.
One Vodafone customer told Shetland News they had formally complained to the company this week about not receiving any compensation for the August outage.
Vodafone then responded to offer them £120 for that blackout, before agreeing to waive their exit fee for them to join another network provider.
Customers of other providers have said that they were told they were not entitled to compensation as they did not raise it with the company at the time of the previous outage, in July and August.
Ofgem has an automatic compensation scheme in place, which says that broadband and phone customers will get money back from their providers whenever there is an outage.
Companies such as Vodafone, BT, EE, Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media are all signed up to the scheme.
Customers should receive compensation 30 calendar days after the loss of service is resolved, Ofgem says.
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