Internet service restored after month-long North Isles blackout

A damaged subsea cable that cut-off broadband to the North Isles has now been repaired, BT has said.

At least 500 homes and businesses were cut off in mid-March when the subsea cable failed due to wear and tear on the rocky seabed.

The arrival of a specialist cable repair ship had been delayed due to poor weather, but Pierre De Fermat arrived in Orkney last Friday to undertake the fix on behalf of owners BT.

On Friday night, a spokesman for BT said: “We can confirm that the cable has now been repaired and services restored to Orkney’s North Isles.

“We would like to apologise once again for the disruption and thank local communities for their patience throughout this period.”

The broadband blackout was declared a major incident and emergency response teams moved swiftly to restore connectivity, including to vital services, such as GP surgeries.

Since then, communities had to rely on interim solutions including mobile phone data and hotspot capability.

Yesterday, a Facebook post shared by Westray Development Trust contained an update from Robbie McGhee, the deputy director for digital connectivity at Scottish Government. He said that the cause of the cable break “appears to be abrasion on the seabed.”

As part of the repair, the cable has been re-routed along a “less hostile” path to help reduce the risk of a similar problem occurring in future.