Faroese Telecoms is lobbying the parliament in Westminster to give it access to the UK market so it can deliver connectivity to Shetland, Orkney and potentially the Highlands. In an interview with The Herald Scotland, the firm’s chief executive Jan Ziskasen stated: ‘What we are proposing to Ofcom and to the councils and government is, if there was to be an exemption of some sort that would cover small areas and small islands, then we would be more than happy to go in because that’s our speciality … Today in Faroe we have 100% coverage: undersea tunnels, remote places, you have coverage … We would be very excited if this became a reality.’ Faroese Telecom is fully state-owned and serves a population of just under 50,000, similar to the combined population of Shetland and Orkney.
The Faroe Islands are an archipelago between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Norway and Iceland, 200 miles north-northwest of mainland Scotland. TeleGeography notes that the Faroe Islands are currently connected to northern Scotland via two different submarine cables, namely FARICE-1 (since January 2004) and SHEFA-2 (since March 2008).