For the second time this year, we’re being reminded just how fragile our interconnected world can be. First, it was in Tonga, where damage to a deep-sea Internet cable knocked out online connectivity to the whole island nation. Now it’s Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland, which have lost all phone and Internet connectivity after, you guessed it, a deep-sea cable was damaged.
Shetland, home to about 23,000 people, is an archipelago located between Scotland and Norway. The damaged cable is to its south. There have been varying reports as to what happened, with some saying that the cable was cut and others saying it was dredged up by a trawler. As of Thursday morning, Police Scotland did not confirm any of these reports.
Maggie Sandison, the chief executive of the Shetland Islands council, told The Guardian that the outage was expected to last until Saturday. Police have set up resources so that residents can use emergency services and are encouraging them to make emergency calls if they need to even if they have no service, saying the calls may still go through.
