A DAMAGED underwater cable that left the Shetland Islands without phone and internet services has been repaired, a telecoms operator has said.
Two breaks in lines connecting Shetland to the Scottish mainland and the Faroe Islands caused a widespread communication breakdown in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The situation led police to declare a major incident.
BT Group, which runs communication services through the lines, said services were reconnected via a temporary solution by the afternoon.
Operator Faroese Telecom confirmed the damaged cable between Shetland and the Faroe Islands, which broke last week, is now fully repaired.
The second “back-up” cable linking Shetland with the Scottish mainland, which was damaged on Thursday, is still being worked on.
Faroese Telecom has previously said the breaks were likely caused by fishing vessels.
A BT Group spokesperson said: “Following the restoration of all broadband and mobile services to Shetland on Thursday afternoon, Faroese Telecom has confirmed today (Saturday) that their subsea cable connecting Shetland with the Faroe Islands has been successfully repaired.
“All services have remained stable since Thursday afternoon when engineers applied a temporary solution to reconnect Shetland to our network.”
While phone and internet services were being restored, police sent extra resources to the islands in case residents needed to contact emergency services.
Chief Inspector Stuart Clemenson, area commander for Shetland, said: “I would like to thank all communities on Shetland and our partner agencies for their help and dedication in recent days.
“Thanks to a strong response from partners we were able to make sure the public had access to emergency services while engineers worked to restore communications.
“This is a prime example of how we work together, locally and nationally to make sure that incidents like these have as little impact as possible.
“Such a speedy response from all helped significantly reduce a serious situation developing for our communities and I would like to pay tribute to everyone involved.”
