Phone issues persist at The Balfour as subsea cable damage confirmed

Phone lines at The Balfour remain out of action this Saturday afternoon, amid persistent internet and telephony issues in Orkney.

Shetland Telecom has confirmed that the section of the SHEFA-2 cable between Orkney and Banff was damaged at in the early hours of this morning.

NHS Orkney issued a statement earlier today, explaining that network issues were affecting incoming and outgoing calls.

“This is affecting switchboard and all departments,” the health authority confirmed.

“Teams are on site working to resolve the issue.

“During this time if your call is urgent please contact switchboard on 07795453757.”

It is understood that there is no impact to 999 emergency phone services in Orkney., and that a timescale for the repair of the cable is yet to be established.

Kirkwall-based internet service provider Cloudnet has also confirmed that it is experiencing issues with its “off-island upstream provider”.

Openreach, which maintains internet and telephony networks nationwide, has apologised for any inconvenience caused by the cable damage.

A spokesman said: “Customers can still make landline calls, and whilst we’re constantly assessing customer impact, we believe up to 10,000 customers in Faroe, Shetland and Orkney islands could have disruption to their broadband services.

“We’re working on repairs as soon as we can and will update further once we can confirm our specific work and timeline. Anyone experiencing any issues should report it to their service provider for further investigation as usual.“