Repairs to Broken Subsea Broadband Cable for Tiree Island Set to Begin
By Mark Jackson, ISPreview UK
November 11, 2025
Good news for residents and businesses on the tiny, remote Inner Hebrides Island of Tiree, which suffered a break in its only subsea fibre cable after Storm Amy struck Scotland at the start of October – resulting in disruption to local broadband and phone services (here). Cable repairs are finally about to get underway.
Tiree is a low-lying island that is home to a population of around 700. The island’s subsea fibre cable, which runs between the village of Scarinish on Tiree and Calgary on Mull (pictured – see red arrow), was first deployed all the way back in 2014 as part of the Digital Scotland contract with BT (i.e. the BT Highlands and Islands Submarine Cable System).
However, since the incident some 6 weeks ago, the island community has been left to depend on a slow and capacity strained temporary satellite broadband link for backhaul via Starlink – provided by BT. Earlier reports also suggested that the cable may not be repaired until December, which is quite a long period of time for a community to be without its main link.
The damaged subsea cable rests in shallow water about 600 metres offshore (such cables are more exposed to damage during particularly violent storms), which appeared to require both a barge and a period of calm weather for the repairs to take place.
Progress is being made
The latest update from the local community is that a cable repair ship has now been dispatched and is due to arrive by the end of this week. At the same time, the shore team are due to start work on land tomorrow. “The cable work is expected to take up to 10 days. It may take slightly longer for the work at the exchange to be completed, but we will keep you updated on progress,” said the Tiree Development Trust.
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