North Isles broadband blackout continues as cable ship delayed

A broadband blackout affecting over 500 homes and businesses in the North Isles will not be fixed this week.

BT, which owns the damaged cable causing the outage, has confirmed that bad weather has delayed repair plans.

The blackout, which began on Monday, March 16, has seen many businesses forced to rely on 4G hotspots in order to process transactions and complete admin. People working remotely have struggled to do so, and community groups have sprung into action to support the most vulnerable and isolated residents.

Last week, isles representatives expressed disappointment at the situation, calling for a foolproof back-up in case of future incidents.

As residents await the arrival of a specialist cable ship to fix the subsea fault between Evie and Westray, a BT emergency response team has made efforts to restore connectivity to essential infrastructure including GP surgeries.

With the vessel now delayed until next week, the company has promised further work to bring connectivity back to “community hubs”.

A spokesman from the company said: “Due to adverse weather conditions, the cable repair vessel is unable to safely carry out the required work this week.

“We apologise to customers for the continued inconvenience and expect repair work to begin as soon as it is safe. In the meantime, our teams have now completed work to restore connectivity at priority sites, with further work scheduled over the coming days to deploy interim solutions at local community hubs.”