SHEFA-1 was deployed from 1971 to 1994, when CANTAT-3 (the fibre-optic submarine cable between Canada and Europe, with branches to both Iceland and the Faroe Islands), was established.
SHEFA-2 includes the world's longest purely passive optical fibre cable link (390 km), entirely without amplifiers.
At the same time, the solution is future proof, as the end-point technology is the only item in need of change to increase the capacity.
In the summer of 2013, the cable was cut for the second time where it crosses the Moray Firth on the north-east coast of Scotland, causing more disruption to Internet connections.
[citation needed] On 20 October 2022, the SHEFA-2 submarine cable was damaged, leaving residents in Shetland without access to the Internet and emergency services.