The National Hospital of Iceland, universities in Iceland and other institutions were cut off from the rest of the world Saturday night as one of two ocean floor cables connecting Iceland to the global internet broke.

The marine cable Cantat-3 is currently being repaired, but as the failure in the cable that runs along the ocean floor between Iceland and Canada is at a depth of 3,000 m, it may take several weeks to fix. A temporary connection is being established. Fréttabladid reports.

The Cantat-3 cable is one of only two telecommunications cables that connect Iceland to the internet; the other is the Farice-1 marine cable.

Jón Ingi Einarsson, manager of RHnet, the network for research institutions and universities in Iceland, told Fréttabladid that with only two cables for telecommunications a crisis is waiting to happen. He said Iceland should at least have three different cables connecting the country with the rest of the world. 

Gudmundur Kr. Unnsteinsson, head of internet company Hringidan, said many private internet users will have problems with their connections if Cantat-3 can’t be fixed temporarily.

The failure in Cantat-3 did not affect major operations like air traffic control or the Iceland Stock Exchange (ICEX).