Orkney Broadband Outage Declared Major Incident after Subsea Cable Damage

TL;DR:

• A subsea cable fault between Evie and Westray has left several hundred people across Orkney’s northern islands without broadband since 16 March.
• BT Openreach has declared a major incident; repairs require a specialist cable ship and favourable weather, with no confirmed timeline.
• The outage highlights the fragility of island connectivity — a recurring challenge as the UK pushes to extend digital infrastructure to remote communities.

Several hundred residents and businesses across Orkney’s northern islands have been without broadband for over a week after damage to a subsea cable triggered a major incident declaration from BT Openreach.

The fault, which began on Monday 16 March, has affected parts of Westray, Sanday, Stronsay, and surrounding islands. Some areas have also experienced disrupted 4G coverage, compounding the impact on homes, businesses, and public services.

Repair Challenges

Openreach confirmed that the damage is on the cable running between Evie and Westray. Fixing it will require a specialist cable ship — a resource that is not readily available on demand — and repairs are weather-dependent, meaning restoration could take considerable time.

Vodafone said it is working with Openreach and Virgin Media O2 to establish an alternative backhaul connection for its mobile sites. Orkney Islands Council convened its incident management team to assess the impact on schools and care networks, though it confirmed that traditional phone lines and 999 services remain unaffected.

Why This Matters

The outage is a sharp reminder of how dependent island communities are on single points of infrastructure failure. Orkney’s subsea cables carry both fixed broadband and mobile backhaul, meaning one fault can cascade across multiple services.

This vulnerability is not unique to Orkney. The Scottish islands, Shetland, and parts of rural Wales and Cornwall face similar risks where connectivity depends on a small number of undersea or overland links. As the UK government pushes to extend gigabit broadband to 85% of premises by 2025 under Project Gigabit, the resilience of connections to remote communities — not just their speed — remains an underexamined challenge.

Looking Forward

Until the cable ship arrives and weather permits, affected islanders face continued disruption. For policymakers, incidents like this raise questions about whether subsea cable redundancy should be a higher priority in rural broadband investment programmes — particularly as remote communities become more reliant on digital services for healthcare, education, and business.