Shetland Telecom Completes Subsea Fibre Optic Link to Yell

Shetland Telecom, which is an arms-length organisation set up by the Shetland Islands Council (Scotland) to develop local telecommunications networks, has this week reported that they’ve just completed the first ever fibre optic link to the island of Yell as part of the £1.91m North Isles Fibre project.

The project was officially announced in early 2019 after the council secured a public investment of £1.91m from the UK Government’s Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) fund (here), which was intended to be used to extend their existing gigabit-capable fibre broadband network to include public sector sites (schools, council buildings etc.) on the North Isles of Yell and Unst (PSBU).

Admittedly the original hope was that this new system could be up and running by Spring 2020, but that was before various other complications, such as COVID-19 and several associated lockdowns, got in the way of things. In the end the fibre blow for the new network to Yell and Unst didn’t start until September last year and Yell has now been connected.

The new Council owned network could potentially also help to provide fibre connection points for other third-party networks which may need backhaul connections, such as community broadband providers or 4G mobile masts. Local Community Halls are not included in the initial roll-out, but the network passes close enough to them that they could be added in at a later date (the exception is the Ulsta hall which will have a small wireless antenna as part of a backup contingency for the network).

In the future it’s also possible that the project may allow for a technical solution to improve the Council’s broadband links to Fetlar.