Tonga Islands have internet again five weeks after volcanic eruption – IT Pro – News

The Tonga archipelago is once again linked to the Internet. Five weeks ago, an undersea cable was damaged during a volcanic eruption that largely cut off Tonga from the outside world until Tuesday.

Australian Writes ABC News The sea cable that supplies Tonga’s internet and telephone has been repaired. This means that Tongatapu and Iowa, the two “main islands”, are again connected to the Internet. The cable is said to have been repaired on Monday, after which it was tested for possible defects for 24 hours. presenters Digicel The TCC confirms that the Internet connection is restored.

The Prime Minister of Tonga said he was “happy to have Tonga back online”. “We had some capacity via satellite, but nothing compared to what we have now with reconnecting the cable,” the prime minister said. Now that the submarine cable has been repaired, work continues to return the inland cable to the smaller surrounding islands.

The sea cable that provided Tonga with its internet connection was damaged in a volcanic eruption on January 15. The force of this explosion caused the cable to break in several places. The prime minister said the damage was worse than originally thought. In total, about 80 kilometers of the 840-kilometre cable were damaged. The repairs took ten days longer than expected. the wire hit in 2019 Damaged by the ship’s anchor. Then the archipelago stopped working for two weeks.