Shetland loses telephone and internet services after subsea cable damaged - The Guardian

Islanders connected Shetland person mislaid astir each landline telephone and net services and immoderate mobile services aft a important subsea cablegram nexus with the mainland was damaged.

Police connected Shetland person declared a large incidental and are patrolling the land to reassure residents, but person warned it could instrumentality respective days for afloat services to beryllium restored. Engineers are moving to reroute immoderate services utilizing different networks.

Ch Insp Jane Mackenzie, of Police Scotland, told BBC Radio Scotland radical should cheque connected aged oregon susceptible neighbours successful lawsuit their assistance alarms were not working, and to debar utilizing telephones for non-urgent calls.

“We’re inactive trying to enactment to found the afloat grade of the occupation – we cognize determination are immoderate telephone lines working, 999 lines are believed to beryllium moving and immoderate mobile networks are inactive working,” she said. “So anyone calling 999 should beryllium capable to bash truthful from a mobile phone. What we would inquire is if you person an exigency you should archetypal effort a landline oregon mobile to telephone 999.

“If that doesn’t work, you should emblem down an exigency work conveyance that isn’t utilizing their bluish airy oregon be either a constabulary station, hospital, occurrence oregon ambulance presumption to study the emergency.”

The unit is successful talks with exigency services specified arsenic the Scottish occurrence and rescue work and HM Coastguard to bring further exigency enactment to the island.

A spokesperson for BT said: “Due to a interruption successful a third-party subsea cablegram connecting Shetland with the Scottish mainland, immoderate phone, broadband and mobile services are affected.

“Engineers are moving to divert services via different routes arsenic soon arsenic imaginable and we’ll supply further updates. Our outer subsea supplier is besides looking to reconstruct their nexus quickly. Anyone who needs to telephone 999 should effort their landline oregon their mobile, adjacent if they don’t person awesome from their ain mobile provider. We’re atrocious for immoderate inconvenience.”

The incidental follows harm to different subsea cablegram connecting Shetland with the Faroe Islands past week, which is owed to beryllium repaired connected Saturday.

Páll Vesturbú, the caput of infrastructure for Faroese Telecom, said the harm was astir apt caused by a trawler. “We expect it volition beryllium sportfishing vessels that damaged the cablegram but it is precise uncommon that we person 2 problems astatine the aforesaid time,” helium said.

In 2020, astir 18,000 homes successful the Western Isles mislaid powerfulness aft a 20-mile-long subsea powerfulness cablegram to the mainland was severed. The powerfulness institution SSEN had to telephone connected a diesel-fuelled powerfulness presumption successful Stornoway and exigency generators to supply back-up power.