Around 40 households on the Isle of Coll will be without broadband until at least Monday, as BT search for a private jet to fly specialist engineers to the island.
Service is provided to a wireless broadband cabinet on the Inner Hebridean island from a radio station at Tobermory on Mull and serves about a quarter of Coll’s properties.
Riggers replaced two damaged radio dishes there on Thursday, however, this has not managed to restore the service to the island.
BT confirmed that specialist engineers are now needed to continue the investigations.
‘We’re sorry for the ongoing outage and the impact on those affected’
A spokesman for BT said: “Due to lack of helicopter and ferry access, and risk to private sailings due to swell, we’re currently trying to secure a private plane, but this is not available until Monday.
“We’re sorry for the ongoing outage and the impact on those affected.”
Coll residents – BT update. Engineers are continuing investigations into the loss of broadband to around 40 households on the island of Coll. Please read this important update from BT https://t.co/OhSawvzGcM pic.twitter.com/kmIActgQv0
— Argyll and Bute Council (@argyllandbute) October 28, 2022
Speaking to the Press & Journal, the manager of the Coll Hotel in Arinagour – the island’s only hotel and pub, Laura Oliphant said: “We’ve had no broadband in the hotel for three weeks.”
‘We’re not going to hold our breath’
She said she hoped that the problem would be fixed on Monday, but was unsure if it would be, adding: “We’ve been hearing that for three weeks, we’re not going to hold our breath.”
Fixed phone and mobile services have not been affected and are working as normal.
Just last week, people in Shetland were left without broadband and phone services after an undersea cable was damaged.
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