Shetland faces three days without Internet, phones or computers following a power outage across the islands. A "major incident" has been declared by BT after an issue with a subsea cable connecting the archipelago to the Scottish mainland.
Engineers who began working on the outage at 5am on Thursday morning now estimate that services will not resume until Saturday, October 22. Islanders have been left without broadband, landline, mobile data, calls and SMS.
Shetland, which has a population of over 22,000, has been severely impacted by the outage already - with hundreds of local businesses unable to run. Police have put on extra patrols to help locals during the outage, with calls to emergency services still possible despite the outage.
A customer warning on BT's website states: "We are aware of a major incident impacting Broadband services and Mobile services in the Shetland Islands. This will impact home broadband connectivity, digital voice, and landline services as well as mobile data, calls and SMS.
"We are working hard to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and estimated time for restoration is Saturday, October 22."
Police have also asked the public to keep and eye on elderly relatives and neighbours at this time. The Scottish Court and Tribunal Service has said that issues affecting Shetland are also impacting on Lerwick Sheriff Court and any queries for the court should be addressed to Elgin@scotcourts.gov.uk or telephone 01343 542505.
Superintendent David Ross said: “We are advising people not to make non-urgent calls for the time being so that all available lines can be used for emergencies if required.
“In an emergency the public should try calling 999 on their landline or mobile. If that does not work you should go to your nearest police station, ambulance station, fire station or hospital to report an emergency or try flagging down an emergency services vehicle that does not have its blue lights on.
“Officers are patrolling in vehicles and on foot and we are working with partners to make additional resources available. I would ask that relatives and neighbours of elderly or vulnerable people check on them regularly. Assistance alarms may not be operating correctly.”
A BT Group spokesperson said earlier: “Due to a break in a third-party subsea cable connecting Shetland with the Scottish mainland, some phone, broadband and mobile services are affected. Engineers are working to divert services via other routes as soon as possible and we’ll provide further updates.
"Our external subsea provider is also looking to restore their link quickly. Anyone who needs to call 999 should try their landline or their mobile, even if they don’t have signal from their own mobile provider. We’re sorry for any inconvenience.”
Shetland is connected with the Scottish mainland via the SHEFA2 cable, which runs from the Faroe Islands to Maywick then Sandwick in Shetland. It then runs to Ayre of Cara in Orkney and onwards to Banff in Aberdeenshire.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
