Shetland outage: Isles cut off from mainland as subsea cable damage sends phone and internet down

Pictured is a general view of the town of Scalloway on Shetland Isle with wind turbines on hillside behind PA
Shetland has been essentially cut off from the mainland due to a widespread communications outage. Credit: PA

Shetland Island's internet, landlines, and mobile phone coverage has been cut off after damage was caused to an undersea cable.

Communications to and from the remote isles, off the northernmost coast of mainland Scotland, were essentially cut off on Thursday morning in a major outage.

Authorities said engineers are working to restore services, after the outage hit internet services, and some land and mobile lines on the Shetland islands.

Police declared a major incident over the outage, as engineers diverted services via other routes as they worked to restore communications.A BT Group spokesperson told The Scotsman: "Due to a break in a third-party subsea cable connecting Shetland with the Scottish mainland, some phone, broadband and mobile services are affected.

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"Engineers are working to divert services via other routes as soon as possible and we'll provide further updates.

"Our external subsea provider is also looking to restore their link quickly. Anyone who needs to call 999 should try their landline or their mobile, even if they don't have signal from their own mobile provider.

"We're sorry for any inconvenience."

Police Scotland assured people on the islands they should still be able to phone 999 from a landline or mobile, even if there is no signal.

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Superintendent David Ross said: “We are advising people not to make non-urgent calls for the time being so that all available lines can be used for emergencies if required.“In an emergency the public should try calling 999 on their landline or mobile. If that does not work you should go to your nearest police station, ambulance station, fire station or hospital to report an emergency or try flagging down an emergency services vehicle that does not have its blue lights on.“Officers are patrolling in vehicles and on foot and we are working with partners to make additional resources available. I would ask that relatives and neighbours of elderly or vulnerable people check on them regularly. Assistance alarms may not be operating correctly.”

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