In a still-unexplained mishap, all internet and telephone service for the southern half of the Westfjords dropped out for about seven hours.
RÚV reports that at about 9:30 yesterday morning, phone and internet for Ísafjörður and the southern Westfjords inexplicably ceased to function. Even emergency services were affected by the glitch. It took seven hours to fix the problem, and Ísafjörður town council intends to file a formal request to know exactly what happened and why.
“It is clear that Ísafjörður town coucil will demand answers on what happened,” Ísafjörður mayor Gísli Halldór Halldórsson told reporters. “But what is more important is that the reaction time is faster in the future, so that it’s possible to deal with such glitches as they occur.”
The telecom company Mila, which oversees much of the telephone and internet service for the region, contends that they did respond as fast as possible. Not only did the main service lines fall out of service; so did the back-up.
“[Repair services] were sent to the scene immediately,” Sigurrós Jónsdóttir, a spokesperson for Mila, told reporters. “They were sent by helicopter, a team with tools and equipment to fix this. It is quite an incredible coincidence that [both lines should drop out] at the same time.”
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