Power cut and weather scotch internet

Internet services were cut in different locations around Shetland after a power cut on Saturday night blew equipment and high pressure disrupted the micro-wave link to the mainland.

According to Shetland Broadband, businesses in Lerwick, which included The Shetland Times and Sutherland’s Garage, and the Sumburgh lighthouse, were all cut off from the internet owing to a “dirty” power surge on Saturday.

High pressure also affected various internet connections at various council offices that are connected by Cable & Wireless.

According to Lubin Poulton of Shetland Broadband, the “main culprit” for the loss of internet was Saturday evening’s power cut which “blew up” equipment. Some links that had dropped out had failed to reboot.

The power cut appeared no more than a blip in many areas but in other places, power was lost for half-an-hour.

The Shetland Times’ equipment failed to reboot on Monday morning and another route across the harbour had been tried by Shetland Broadband without success.

Guy Smith of Shetland Telecom said that high atmospheric pressure had affected parts of the SIC network and Shetland College. This had been a long running issue affecting the Cable & Wireless microwave network that links Sumburgh to Fair Isle and thence to Orkney and the mainland.

He said: “High pressure is screwing up the microwave link. We are fairly sure it is to do with the weather.”

He said that historically, high pressure had been most likely to affect the longest stretch in the link between Sumburgh and Fair Isle. Unfortunately, nothing could be done to recover the microwave signal, other than wait for the fine weather to deteriorate.