Damaged cable to Shetland: what problems are caused?

[Mcr Warrior]

Damaged cable leaves Shetland cut off from mainland

Police have declared a major incident with phone lines and internet down on the islands.

www.bbc.com

Communications to Shetland have been severely disrupted after a subsea cable was damaged.
Police have declared a major incident after the south subsea cable between the islands and the mainland was cut.
The force said some landlines and mobiles were not usable and that officers were patrolling to try to reassure residents.

What caused the Shetland cable damage?
Trawlers? Storms? Something else?!

 

[oldman]

What caused the Shetland cable damage?
Trawlers? Storms? Something else?!

The Faroese say fishing vessels.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The Faroese say fishing vessels.

The fishing fleets should be aware of the locations of strategic items to be aware of. I wonder what depth the damaged cable was when the incident occurred.

 

[najaB]

The fishing fleets should be aware of the locations of strategic items to be aware of.

And they are, generally, marked as "keep out" areas on the charts. However, mistakes happen.

 

[Gloster]

I must admit that when I saw that two cables had been damaged, I wondered if it was the Russians either trying something out or making a gentle hint. And I am one who normally tends towards the cock-up rather than conspiracy end of the spectrum.

 

[najaB]

I must admit that when I saw that two cables had been damaged, I wondered if it was the Russians either trying something out or making a gentle hint. And I am one who normally tends towards the cock-up rather than conspiracy end of the spectrum.

Had they been damaged at the same time then that would be extremely suspicious, but I understand there was a gap of a few weeks between the events.

 

[Gloster]

Had they been damaged at the same time then that would be extremely suspicious, but I understand there was a gap of a few weeks between the events.

In the article it says ‘last week’.

 

[najaB]

In the article it says ‘last week’.

Ah, okay. My mistake. That's what I get for skim-reading .

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Following an incident such as this, can the damage be repaired without the need for submerging a whole new length of cable?

 

[philosopher]

Damaged cable leaves Shetland cut off from mainland

Police have declared a major incident with phone lines and internet down on the islands.

www.bbc.com

What caused the Shetland cable damage?
Trawlers? Storms? Something else?!

I must admit that when I first read this story, my first thought was that the Russians did it.

 

[Ediswan]

Following an incident such as this, can the damage be repaired without the need for submerging a whole new length of cable?

There is a small industry repairing undersea cables.

A 'HOWTO' video:

This animation depicts a standard repair to an undersea fiber optic cable system, performed by one of SubCom's cable ships.

 

[david1212]

I must admit that when I saw that two cables had been damaged, I wondered if it was the Russians either trying something out or making a gentle hint. And I am one who normally tends towards the cock-up rather than conspiracy end of the spectrum.

My instant reaction too.

 

[GusB]

I must admit that when I saw that two cables had been damaged, I wondered if it was the Russians either trying something out or making a gentle hint. And I am one who normally tends towards the cock-up rather than conspiracy end of the spectrum.

My initial thoughts on the matter was that one cable was probably an accident, but that two was a bit suspicious. The cable from Shetland to the Faroes was damaged, but not completely severed, while the southern cable was severed completely. To say that "a fishing vessel" was the cause seems a bit far-fetched to me. Obviously, if there are dark forces at work here, the powers the be will want to downplay the situation.

It also makes me wonder if centralising vital services like 999 is a good idea. It's also rather disconcerting that local telecoms were knocked out - surely they should be able to function at a local level without a connection to the UK mainland.

 

[DerekC]

It also makes me wonder if centralising vital services like 999 is a good idea. It's also rather disconcerting that local telecoms were knocked out - surely they should be able to function at a local level without a connection to the UK mainland.

Absolutely right. And I have been wondering for a few weeks what would happen if the transatlantic cables were knocked out. How many of the services we rely on (electricity distribution, banking, online shopping, NHS) depend at some level on servers on the other side of the pond? I suspect it's rather a lot. Hopefully somebody (GCHQ?) has been thinking about this for years and we have a fully resilient system, but I have a feeling that's wishful thinking.

 

[JamesT]

Absolutely right. And I have been wondering for a few weeks what would happen if the transatlantic cables were knocked out. How many of the services we rely on (electricity distribution, banking, online shopping, NHS) depend at some level on servers on the other side of the pond? I suspect it's rather a lot. Hopefully somebody (GCHQ?) has been thinking about this for years and we have a fully resilient system, but I have a feeling that's wishful thinking.

If you look at a picture such as the one on https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17340700 you’ll see the cables are fairly well distributed, it would take a lot of attacks to take out the transatlantic ones. Even then, internet traffic can reroute and go via other locations, even the “wrong way” round the world.

 

[TheGarner]

This is also a good site if for looking at the undersea cables: https://www.submarinecablemap.com/

 

[dgl]

and according to BBC News now all fixed.

 

[adc82140]

I was very surprised to learn that most communications to Shetland were in a cable no bigger than a domestic hosepipe, dangling across the UK's busiest fishing waters, with no backup.

Shetland Broadband remained online throughout though. Is their backbone satellite based?

 

[dgl]

Shetland Broadband remained online throughout though. Is their backbone satellite based?

As I understand not all of the fibre strands in the cable were broken, one of the unbroken ones being for Shetland Broadband.

I wonder if the BT microwave link via Fair Isle is still in use, I know that was originally for phone signals, but I wonder if it ever got upgraded for modern use.

 

[XAM2175]

Hopefully somebody (GCHQ?) has been thinking about this for years and we have a fully resilient system, but I have a feeling that's wishful thinking.

Interestingly, none other than Rishi Sunak wrote a position paper on the topic a few years back:

Undersea Cables: Indispensable, insecure - Policy Exchange

We must do more to protect the indispensable yet insecure internet infrastructure provided by undersea cables, urges Rishi Sunak MP in a new report published by Policy Exchange, Undersea Cables: Indispensable, insecure. 97% of global communications and $10 trillion in daily financial...

policyexchange.org.uk