Broadband Outage in Shetland Islands for SKY customers

[squib6]

Since Friday there has been a broadband outage for SKY customers in the Shetland Islands due to a damaged cable.

https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2025/10/06/confirmed-time-repair-subsea-cable/

It is now being advised in the media that it is to be over a week until its repaired despite  SKY's bradband's line checker has been saying it will be repaired in a couple of days since friday.

This is the seconed time this has happened in 3 months.

As stated in the media article linked other providers are not affected as they are rerouting through other cables. It would seem SKY are choosing not to do this and would rather leave the customers cut off.

At this stage i would like to swap to a new provider as it appers SKY are choosing not to restore my service. Currently I am half way through a 24 month contract which has hefty termination fees.

Surely I should be able to leave SKY without penelty in this instace as they appear to be  chosing not to repair my service when other ISPs are.

I am posting this to this forum as i cannot find any way of emailing help on the website and ended up here throu the AI chatbot. I am at work and do not have the time to talk to a call centre.

[squib6]

Does anyone have an email contact for sky broadband? the AI assistant continually redirects me to this forum which isnt going to help my issue.

[JimM1]

@squib6 You need to complain and that is done online, then 8 weeks later you can see where it goes from that point onwards!

Sky do not use e-mail, and the Forum is customer advice only not sky personnel.

[squib6]

Thanks for your reply.

Can you point me where to complain to?  the only link to complain i can find takes me to where i would complain about a SKY TV program.

[JimM1]

@squib6 it's all the same place! same form select broadband complaint!

How to make a Sky complaint | Sky Help | Sky.com | Sky Help | Sky.com

[SteveJack]

They re-routed a few months ago after damage to the same cable so I guess the reason not to do it again so soon is likely financial.  I moved from BT to save money and Sky broadband proved to be very stable. I always wondered what would happen in circumstances like this though and was surprised and pleased that the outage a few months ago was resolved by re-routing ( unlike vodafone for example ).  

So was it  considered  to be too expensive to repeat so soon for a relatively small customer base? Or have they not paid / or are disputing the bill for the last re-route?!  I may have to grit my teeth and pay the extra to go back to BT 😕

I will be very reluctant to pay anything to leave Sky in these circumstances and will follow your experience with interest. 

[Samantha119]

I am in exactly the same boat, as soon as this is resolved I am switching to EE m, they pay upto £300 for any early termination fees due to switching. This is incredibly poor from sky. I have no 4G as the signal for that is shocking in Lerwick! 

[squib6]

Unfortunately, for me when I  go on the ee website they quote a 11Mbs download at my property as opposed to bt who quote 19-31Mbs both the same price.

[Wigglin]

I absolutely feel the same way. I only joined Sky in Sept and had both outages. I want to leave. It's an appalling service. They also only give me 41mbps on a 67 tarrif. My last provider gave 57. I want to leave. 

[squib6]

BBC News - Repair to damaged Shetland internet cable delayed

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9wd4zvk9v0o

I don't know if any other customers have been contacted by sky? I haven't. 

I have compaind to sky written to OFCOM and am yet to have a reply from anyone. 

[Wigglin]

I only joined Sky in Sept and regret it. I raised a complaint to them today as my data is nearly all used up on my phone, and tethering for work is abysmal. 

I will write a complaint to Ofcom too if they don't let me out if the contract. Its a shame if this service is always impacted by the underwater cables, but they need to do the same as other providers.  I will be interested to hear Ofcoms response to you. Interestingly, Ofcoms site states my location address can achieve 75mbps, so I am astounded to only reach 41mbps with only a 60fps.  We really shouldn't be disadvantaged to this extent on the Islands.

[JacksDad]

Why won't sky reroute its broadband from the damaged Shafer 2 cable onto another undamaged cable?

[JimM1]

@JacksDad That may be a question for the cable owner!

[JacksDad]

They did it the last time the cable was damaged but for some reason not this time.

Its probably cheaper to pay its Shetland customers compensation than pay to use the other leg of said cable that is undamaged!! 

Poor show Sky.

Are Sky now in breach of contract as they are not providing the service signed up to?????

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@JimM1 wrote:

@JacksDad That may be a question for the cable owner!

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[JimM1]

@JacksDad It's not sky who pay you compensation, they don't give there money away without claims all the way back down the food chain!