“First post on Facebook since January 15!” wrote school chaplain Penisimani Akauola, who was one of the first on the island to get back online. “So blessed with this opportunity!” Until the cable was repaired, residents of Tonga had to make do with satellite services.
The repair ship Reliance (‘reliability’) took a total of 20 days to repair the 92 kilometer section of the fiber optic cable. The complete cable, connecting Tonga to Fiji and other international networks, is 827 kilometers long.
The next mission is to repair the inland cable connecting the central island of Tongatapu to the smaller surrounding islands. That could take another six to nine months, said James Panuve, chief executive of cable company Tonga Cable; “We don’t have enough cables.”
Earlier, Elon Musk’s satellite company said it was in the process of reconnecting Tonga, hit by a volcanic eruption. Musk donated 50 satellite earth stations to Tonga to restore communications with the archipelago.
The first humanitarian flights arrived in Tonga at the end of January, just days after the Pacific island nation was hit by a volcanic eruption and tsunami:
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