Shetland Islands Connect Local Superfast Fibre Optic Link to SHEFA2 Cable

Shetland Telecom, which was setup by the Shetland Islands Council (SIC) to develop better telecom and superfast broadband internet access services in the remote Shetland Islands (North of Scotland, UK), has successfully connected up its new fibre optic infrastructure to the undersea SHEFA-2 cable that links the Faroe Islands to mainland Scotland (UK).

The SHEFA2 Interconnect Project intends to ensure that islanders benefit from access to a “resilient, reliable and affordable backhaul“, which should be significantly faster than the current Microwave (wireless) link. This will also help to support the council’s Digital Shetland strategy, which aims to ensure that 80% of Shetland’s communities are connected to a fibre optic backbone by March 2016.

The SIC also wants 90% of the islands population to be within reach of a superfast broadband service (i.e. faster than 24Mbps) by the same date.

Shetland Telecom Statement

“Delighted to announce that we are now connected to Faroese Telecom’s SHEFA2 fibre optic cable. We should be fully operational in the next couple of weeks.”

One of the services that should benefit from today’s news is Quasarnet, a community group that is working to deliver Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) based superfast broadband to the Gulberwick, Quarff, Cunningsburgh and Sandwick areas of southern Shetland. Next stop is to connect the first real users.