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Articles for Category Tag - shetland islands

Shetland Expecting Fix for Broken Subsea Fibre Cable to Occur Next Weekend

18th October, 2025 (0 Comments)

Homes and businesses on Shetland, which is a remote UK subarctic archipelago that resides north of the Scottish mainland, could see the full restoration of local broadband services by around next weekend. Connectivity was disrupted earlier this month after Storm Amy caused damage to the main SHEFA-2 (Faroese Telecom) subsea fibre optic cable (here).

Broadband Outages on Shetland After Second Subsea Fibre Break in 3 Months UPDATE

4th October, 2025 (5 Comments)

Customers of ISP Sky Broadband, Vodafone and possibly others on Shetland, which is a remote UK subarctic archipelago that resides north of the Scottish mainland, started suffering from a loss of internet connectivity yesterday after the main SHEFA-2 (Faroese Telecom) subsea fibre optic cable suffered damage on Friday; the second time in 3 months.

Repair Ship Cable Vigilance Aims to Fix Shetland Subsea Fibre Break by Thursday

5th August, 2025 (3 Comments)

Good news. Broadband and mobile services on the remote Shetland and Orkney Islands (Scotland), which have been disrupted since part of the main SHEFA-2 (Faroese Telecom) submarine (subsea) fibre optic cable was damaged over a week ago (here), could be restored as soon as this Wednesday or Thursday after the French repair ship ‘Cable Vigilance‘ arrived.

subsea_fibre_optic_laying_openreach_bt_scotland

Broadband Disrupted for Shetland and Orkney by Subsea Fibre Break UPDATE

27th July, 2025 (11 Comments)

Thousands of homes and businesses across Shetland, which is a remote UK subarctic archipelago that resides north of the Scottish mainland, have suffered disruption to their broadband services this weekend after part of the main SHEFA-2 (Faroese Telecom) submarine (subsea) fibre optic cable was damaged. Premises on the Orkney Islands were also hit.

Scotland May Reissue Gigabit Broadband Tender for Fife, Perth and Kinross

17th June, 2025 (0 Comments)

The Scottish Government (SG) looks as if they could be preparing to “relaunch” their proposed gigabit broadband roll-out procurement for Fife, Perth and Kinross during September 2025. This might take a second stab at trying to find a supplier that can help upgrade the remaining set of hardest-to-reach premises.

New Subsea Cable Link Being Explored for the Shetland Islands

12th June, 2025 (3 Comments)

Network operator VodafoneThree UK has today announced that they’ve begun a “feasibility study” to explore the possibility and cost of deploying a new subsea fibre optic cable system to help transform broadband and mobile connectivity in the Shetland Islands – a remote subarctic archipelago that resides some way north of Scotland.

Scotland Stops £43m Gigabit Broadband Tender for Fife, Perth and Kinross

7th June, 2025 (5 Comments)

ISPreview has uncovered that the Scottish Government (SG) have stopped their tender for a supplier to deliver on the proposed £43m (state aid) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out scheme in Fife, Perth and Kinross (Lot 4 – Scotland). This had been expected to help expand full fibre (FTTP) connectivity to an estimated 28,441 premises in hard-to-reach rural areas.

Scotland Tenders for £40.7m Gigabit Broadband Rollout in Orkney and Shetland

12th December, 2024 (4 Comments)

ISPreview has spotted that the Scottish Government (SG) yesterday issued a contract notice for the Orkney & Shetland (Lot 6 – Scotland) deployment under the UK’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out scheme, which is expected to expand full fibre (FTTP) connectivity to an estimated 13,550 premises in hard-to-reach (rural) parts of the remote Northern Isles.

O2 UK Highlights New Masts to Boost Shetland 4G Mobile Cover

24th January, 2024 (7 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today highlighted the deployment of a new mobile mast to boost 4G (mobile broadband) coverage on the remote rural Shetland island, which sits far away off the north coast of Scotland. Several more masts are due to follow under the £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project.

fair isle picture from Openreach Dec 2023 PR

Full Fibre Rollout to Remote Fair Isle Sets New Openreach Record

28th December, 2023 (16 Comments)

Openreach (BT) has announced that they’ve managed to bring their gigabit Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP network to the remote Fair Isle, which is a tiny island that sits around halfway between Shetland and the Orkney islands (Scotland) – the longest distance (100km) they’ve been able to transmit a continuous fibre signal anywhere in the UK.

UK Gov Updates on Rural Satellite Broadband Trial and New Pilots UPDATE

12th June, 2023 (13 Comments)

The Government has revealed some new details about their previously announced trial (here) to deliver “high-speed broadband” via Satellite ISP solutions to Shetland. At the same time, they’ve also launched a new Smart Infrastructure Pilots Programme (SIPP) and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Telecoms Diversification with Australia.

Shetland Telecom to Seek Code Powers Ahead of Possible Fibre Expansion

1st June, 2023 (12 Comments)

The Shetland Islands Council (Scotland) has given the green light for Shetland Telecom, which is the arms-length network operator that the council set up some years ago, to apply for Code Powers – ahead of a possible move to expand their full fibre broadband network to reach the remotest homes and businesses.

Shetland Islands Council Seeks Strategy for Shetland Telecom

13th December, 2022 (1 Comment)

Shetland Telecom, which is the arms-length network operator that was originally set up by the Shetland Islands Council (Scotland) to develop local fibre optic infrastructure, is facing a review by the local authority after councillors found that the company lacked a clear strategy and could potentially do more to improve broadband.

Starlink-Shetland-Islands-Coverage-Sept-2022

Starlink Expand UK Coverage to Include Part of Shetland Islands

27th September, 2022 (13 Comments)

SpaceX’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) based mega constellation of Starlink ultrafast broadband satellites has made a small but significant improvement to its coverage of the UK, which for the first time has now started to encompass the southern part of the remote Shetland islands in Scotland.

BT Quotes 15 Premises on Shetland £725k to Get Broadband

10th June, 2022 (26 Comments)

The MSP for the Shetland Islands (Scotland), Beatrice Wishart (LibDem), has helped to highlight the challenge of connecting some very remote rural communities after one group of 15 properties was quoted £725,000 to get faster broadband installed under the 10Mbps+ Universal Service Obligation (USO).

Shetland Telecom Completes Subsea Fibre Optic Link to Yell

4th March, 2021 (6 Comments)

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.

Bomb Squad Nearly Blows Up Shetland Telecom’s Fibre Network

18th August, 2020 (7 Comments)

Part of Shetland Telecom‘s fibre optic broadband network on the remote Shetland Islands (Scotland) was only slightly, albeit knowingly, damaged last Friday following the discovering of a WWII era pipe bomb, which had to be made safe through detonation by a professional bomb squad.