Phone links coming back after eruption
Print Edition
Telephone links between Tonga and the wider world began to be reconnected yesterday, though restoring full Internet connectivity is likely to take a month or more according to the owner of the archipelago’s sole subsea communications cable.
The explosion of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano, which has killed at least three people and sent tsunami waves across the Pacific, knocked out connectivity to the archipelago on Saturday.
A specialist ship is aiming to leave from Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea on a repair voyage over the weekend, said Samiuela Fonua, chairman of cable owner Tonga Cable Ltd.
But with eight or nine days’ sailing to collect equipment in Samoa and then an uncertain journey toward the eruption area he said it will be “lucky” if the job is done within a month.
“It could be longer than that,” he added on the telephone from Auckland where he has been coordinating the repair. “The cables are actually around the volcanic zone. We don’t know ... whether they are intact or blown away or stuck somewhere underwater. We don’t know if it’s buried even deeper.”
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