SHEFA-2 is an undersea communication cable linking the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

to mainland

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

via the

Northern Isles The Northern Isles ( sco, Northren Isles; gd, Na h-Eileanan a Tuath; non, Norðreyjar; nrn, Nordøjar) are a pair of archipelagos off the north coast of mainland Scotland, comprising Orkney and Shetland. They are part of Scotland, as are th ...

. It is named after the route on which it is being deployed (SHEtland-FAroes) and succeeds an earlier cable called SHEFA-1 on the same route.

Construction and route

SHEFA-2 runs from

Tórshavn Tórshavn (; lit. "Thor's harbour"), usually locally referred to as simply ''Havn'', is the capital and largest city of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the northwest of the city lies the ...

in the Faroe Islands to Maywick in

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

, then from Sandwick in Shetland onwards to Ayre of Cara in

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

, and from Manse Bay in Orkney to Banff in

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

, on mainland Scotland. Establishing the SHEFA-2 cable took less than two years, from the planning of the project in June 2006 until March 2008, when the cable became ready for use. SHEFA-1 was deployed from 1971 to 1994, when

CANTAT-3 CANTAT-3 was the third Canadian transatlantic telecommunications cable, in regular operation from 1994 to 2010, carrying 3 x 2.5 Gbit/s between Canada and Europe. It branches to both Iceland and the Faroe Islands. It is out of normal service for ...

(the fibre-optic submarine cable between Canada and Europe, with branches to both Iceland and the Faroe Islands), was established. It was a

coaxial cable Coaxial cable, or coax (pronounced ) is a type of electrical cable consisting of an inner conductor surrounded by a concentric conducting shield, with the two separated by a dielectric ( insulating material); many coaxial cables also have a p ...

with 120 channels, carrying 120 telephone conversations at a time. SHEFA-2 is a fibre-optic submarine cable and the capacity with the technology of 2006 is 57x10

gigabit The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented a ...

s per second. The total length of the cable is around 1000 km. SHEFA-2 includes the world's longest purely passive optical fibre cable link (390 km), entirely without amplifiers. With no submarine repeaters and no power feeds, repair and maintenance of the submarine cable is minimized. At the same time, the solution is future proof, as the end-point technology is the only item in need of change to increase the capacity.

Disruption incidents

In the spring of 2013, the cable was cut at the south of Orkney. This led to major broadband disruptions throughout Shetland. Internet traffic was redirected onto the older and slower microwave links and the

FARICE-1 FARICE-1 is a submarine communications cable connecting Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Scotland. The cable has been in use since January 2004 and is 100% owned by the Icelandic state. The cable had an initial design capacity of 720 Gbit/s and i ...

cable. In the summer of 2013, the cable was cut for the second time where it crosses the Moray Firth on the north-east coast of Scotland, causing more disruption to Internet connections. It is believed that fishing vessels are to blame for both cable breaks. On 20 October 2022, the SHEFA-2 submarine cable was damaged, leaving residents in Shetland without access to the Internet and emergency services. Sources speculated this might have resulted from a fishing vessel accidentally cutting the cable. However others speculated on the possibility of sabotage by

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. The cable had also been cut 5 days before at a different area. After the second cut, Faroese Telecom operating the cable said it is "very rare that we have two problems at the same time". It was declared to be fixed on 23 October.

External links

Official website

References

{{Submarine communications cables in the Atlantic Ocean Infrastructure completed in 2008 2008 establishments in Scotland Telecommunications in Scotland Scottish coast Submarine communications cables in the North Atlantic Ocean Buildings and structures in the Faroe Islands 2008 establishments in the Faroe Islands

Construction and route

Disruption incidents

See also

External links

References