The residents of Vava’u and Ha’apai will continue experiencing phone and internet outages caused by the damaged submarine fibre-optic cable because the repair ship, en route from Singapore, is reportedly stuck in Fiji, according to Tonga Cable Ltd CEO Semisi Panuve.
The unnamed ship, which the Government had promised to arrive in Tonga this week, is stopping to refuel and restock in Fiji, delaying its departure by at least a week according to CEO Panuve. It’s almost a month now since the outages on the affected islands.
A week ago, Government reversed its ban on Starlink’s operation in Tonga giving the company a 6-month permit allowing customers, particularly those on the affected islands, to have a stable connection.
The actual cause and the extent of the cable damage won’t be known until the ship arrives but is suspected to be multiple landslides from an earthquake, with two faults located 73 km and 96 km from Tongatapu. If the damage extends beyond 50 km, repairs could be postponed for months.
