Seven weeks after Storm Amy cut Tiree’s subsea cable supplying broadband, 4G and digital phone services, the island is back online.
Tiree Community Development Trust has welcomed the completion of repairs and extended their thanks to the Scottish Government and BT for their work in resolving the fault, acknowledging that the repair was a substantial undertaking. The support from Jenni Minto MSP, and the seriousness with which the Deputy First Minister took the situation were particularly appreciated.
Neil MacPhail, Chair of Urras Thiriodh said, “We are grateful to everyone who worked to restore the cable. The return of full services is a relief across the community. At the same time, the past weeks have shown how exposed we are when a single point of failure leaves an island without dependable digital links. Tiree must not be placed in this position again.”
In written answers to the Trust, BT noted that the cable “has already been installed for 11 years and only suffered 2 faults during this time.”
Phyl Meyer, Chief Officer of the Trust commented, “For communities which rely on this link for healthcare, education, crofting, business, emergency access and daily life, two failures without a robust fallback is poor. A third failure would be unforgivable. Long term resilience must be taken seriously.
The Trust is now looking forward to being fully engaged in a Government led debrief, and hopes to contribute meaningfully to long term digital resilience planning for island communities.
Neil added, “We want to work constructively with the government and industry, and we will continue to do that. We will also continue to speak up for the community. Proper communications resilience is essential. From being able to call 999 in an emergency to being able to fully participate in modern society, reliable digital connectivity is vital. We will keep making that case until solutions are delivered.”
With the cable restored, the community is looking forward to the completion of the R100 roll out, bringing fibre speeds to every home in the island.
