Cable Vigilance begins damaged cable recovery at Orkney site
THE CABLE Vigilance has arrived in Orkney and has begun to recover the damaged subsea cable ahead of repair works this weekend.
Faroese Telecom, which owns the Shefa-2 subsea cable, said the cable repair vessel had arrived at the site of the damage this morning (Thursday) after travelling north from Calais.
Faroese Telecom managing director Páll Højgaard Vesturbú told Shetland News that preparatory work for the repairs is now continuing.
“Weather forecasts suggest that conditions may be more suitable for the main repair operations on Sunday rather than Saturday,” he said.
“If conditions allow, full restoration is expected by Sunday evening or Monday morning.”
He added the Cable Vigilance crew were currently in the process of recovering the damaged cable and splicing.
Tomorrow (Friday) marks three weeks since the cable was damaged – on 3 October – leaving many Shetlanders without internet.
Politicians Alistair Carmichael and Beatrice Wishart have announced plans for a resilience summit in Lerwick next month about ongoing connectivity issues in Shetland.
The October outage is the second major instance of the Shefa-2 cable being damaged this year.
Telecommunication providers, governments and regulator Ofcom have all been invited to the summit at Islesburgh on 21 November.
It will include a private roundtable discussion will all parties, including representatives from the UK and the Scottish governments and as many service providers as are willing to attend.
This will be followed by an open public meeting at the same venue, starting at 1pm.
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