Residents on Schiermonnikoog with a Kabelnoord subscription have been dealing with an internet, cable radio and telephone service outage since Saturday afternoon.
Translation by Traci White
UPDATE: 4:35 p.m., Monday, 20 August
Omrop Fryslan reports that service has been restored to the island after being rerouted via Lauwersoog.
Original story below:
RTV Noord reports that large swathes of the island, the majority of which is located within the province of Friesland, has been without telecommunications services over the weekend. A spokesperson from Kabelnoord, a telecom company serving a number of municipalities, including several islands, in Friesland and Groningen, told RTV Noord that the outage is due to a damaged fibre optic cable which supplies the island.
Underwater
“The problem has been going on for 24 hours already”, the spokesperson said on Sunday. “Technicians are working to fix the problem as quickly as possible, but it will be a challenge because a section of the cable is underwater.”
On Monday morning, the company wrote on their website that KPN, another telecom provider, was working to reroute service through their cables for the Wadden Sea region. “Due to the complexity of the operation, it is difficult to say how long this will take.” The company wrote that they would post further updates later in the day.
The island has a permanent population of 947 people and is a popular tourist destination in the region due to its uncultivated dunes, forests and beaches.
