Faroese fibre rollout halted as thousands left without working connections

More than a third of fibre-optic cables installed in Faroese homes and businesses in recent years remain non-functional, prompting state-owned telecoms operator NET to pause all new deployments, Kringvarp Føroya reports.

Páll H. Vesturbú, NET’s managing director, confirmed Thursday that roughly 3,700 customers—who have had fibre cables physically installed in their properties—still cannot use the high-speed service. “We are now drawing the consequences of this and will not lay any new fibre cables,” Vesturbú stated. Instead, all resources will shift to activating the existing but dormant connections.

The setback follows months of scrutiny after lawmaker Bill Justinussen questioned the telecoms minister over stalled progress, alleging that NET’s parent company, Føroya Tele, had failed to allocate necessary funding to continue the rollout. Vesturbú acknowledged cost overruns but declined to specify financial details.

Føroya Tele had reported in April that approximately 10,500 fibre connections were “laid to customers” by the end of 2025—a figure now revealed to include thousands of inactive lines.