A ground breaking ceremony to mark the beginning of the laying of over 300kms submarine fiber optic telecommunication cable from Tongatapu to Vava'u was officiated by the Prime Minister, Lord Tu'ivakano in Neiafu, Vava'u yesterday, 14 May.

The Director of the Information and Communication Division, Paula Ma'u said the Domesic Cable Project was the Second Phase of a national project, connecting Tonga via a fiber optic telecommunication cable network to Fiji, and to the rest of the world.

The First Phase of the project connected Tonga to the Southern Cross Cable network in Fiji and onwards to the Equinix data centre in Australia, the international hub and Tonga's gateway to connect to the rest of the world, in August 2013.

Paula was optimistic that the Phase II project should be completed before the end of the year.

He said that they were currently tendering for a contractor to lay more than 300kms of submarine cable from Sopu in Tongatapu to Kuli-fekai in Neiafu, Vava'u.

With regards to the financing of the project he said that they already had $5 million pa'anga on hand, money that they saved from Phase One.

After Vava'u the next phase will be connecting Ha‘apai to the submarine cable network.