Politicians urge people to sign up for summit on broadband outages
STRONG interest has been registered in a summit on the state of Shetland’s telecommunications resilience, the politicians leading the forum have said.
MP Alistair Carmichael and MSP Beatrice Wishart will hold a public meeting at 1pm in Islesburgh on Friday 21 November, which follows a private roundtable talk.
The Scottish Government, UK Government, Faroese Telecom, telecommunications regulator Ofcom, Openreach, TalkTalk, Vodafone, Sky Group and Highland Broadband have all been invited to send representatives to the summit.
The event follows renewed internet disruption in Shetland in October due to subsea cable damage, after a previous cable outage in the summer.
Carmichael said the meeting was about “demanding basic accountability” from internet providers for the people of Shetland.
“I am glad that we have had such a strong uptake on attendees from all sides,” he said.
“I would encourage anyone who is able to join the public event after the summit to do so and to make their views heard.
“Good and reliable connectivity is a basic expectation for our communities – now is the time to deliver it.”
Isles MSP Wishart added that there had been a “great response from across Shetland” so far.
“Shetland should never be left in this situation again as we increasingly rely on the internet for everyday activities.
“We contribute to the national economy with energy generation and space industry developments and reliable connectivity is increasingly critical.”
Islanders can indicate their plans to join the public session by signing up here.
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