Ship arrives to repair Jersey's undersea internet cables

In January one of the cables was cut when a ship dropped anchor in stormy seas

A specialist ship has arrived at the site of one of three broken undersea internet cables to begin repairs, according to telecoms company JT.

A ship dragging its anchor on the seabed in the English Channel cut the three main internet cables to the Channel Islands on Monday.

Repair work on the first cable is expected to take a week.

Daragh McDermott from government owned JT said broadband speeds are expected to be slower during peak times.

A second ship is on the way from France to repair the second cable and JT says the third cable will be repaired after that.

Jersey's coastguard said there will be an investigation to see if the ship dropped anchor in a banned area.

Owners of the King Arthur, Mediterranea di Navigazione, said they were investigating whether it was their ship that caused the problem.

The team repairing the cable in January pulled this anchor up

Three cables went one after the other on Monday with the first going at 16:00 GMT and the last by 21:00 GMT as the anchor was dragged across the seabed.

Mr McDermott said: "Thanks to the actions taken since the cables were cut, we have capacity in place to manage demand, although we have obviously lost spare capacity should further issues arise."