five weeks ago the tongan archipelagolocated in Southeast Asia, lost internet access after what a volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami caused serious damage to the submarine cable that allowed the citizens of their islands to have access to the Internet. Already then it was confirmed that the islands would take weeks to begin to recover the connection, and months to have it fully restored, due to the numerous and serious damage suffered by the underwater infrastructure that links Tonga with Fiji, which is what brings the Internet to their islands. Fortunately, Tongan start to recover the connection. This has been confirmed by one of the two main operators in the archipelago, Digicel.
According to this operator, they have already managed to recover data connectivity on the islands of Tongatapu and USA, after the Reliance submarine managed to repair the damaged section of the nearly 830-kilometre cable linking the country to Fiji. In total, about 92 kilometers of said cable have been replaced, which was broken at various points. In total, the repair and cable replacement tasks have taken 20 days.
Of course, although these two islands of Tonga have already regained access to the Internet, not all the islands have it yet. And his recovery can go a long way and take several months to return. The cable that connects the main island of the archipelago, the aforementioned Tongatapu, with the neighboring islands, was also damaged during the tsunami. As confirmed by the CEO of Tonga Cable, James PanuveTo Reuters, it could take six to nine months to make the repairs they need to get the internet back up and running on small islands.
This is simply due to the fact that at the moment they do not have enough cable to change all the ones that are damaged. In fact, the fact that two of Tonga’s islands have regained access in five weeks is due to the generosity of telcos from neighboring islands and archipelagos, such as New Caledonia, who have shared their cable stocks with Tonga. In this period without connection through submarine cable, the country has had to connect to carry out its main tasks online provisionally, precariously and with many limitations, through satellites. But the connection did not reach, far from it, the general public.
Those responsible for the island’s communications hope, however, that by recovering both the main island and the US island access to the Internet through cable, and being able to connect through fiber instead of by satellite, the connection of the Network in the rest of the islands through satellite can improve.
Of course, what has happened has meant that the communications provider companies on the island have considered various changes in their management for the future. For example in Digicel, which since last October has been owned by the Australian Telstra, have decided to explore the possibility of increasing investment, as well as optimizing the network so that it is prepared in the event of a catastrophic event in the future. This has been confirmed its CEO, Anthony Seuseu.
Photo: dr.scott.mills
