Tonga’s Submarine International Cable network, will be back into operation on Wednesday, 6 February, the CEO for Tonga Cable Ltd, ‘Etuini Liava’a Tonga Matangi Tonga this afternoon.

The cable connnects Tonga to Fiji.

‘Etuini said that meanwhile, the repairing of the damage to the cable that connects the network from Sopu, Nuku’alofa, to Ha’apai and Vava’u will be completed by Tuesday. Then Tonga’s Submarine International Cable network will be back into full operation on Wednesday.

The cause of the breakages to two cables, the Voltage and the Network cable which combined to formed the cable network that connects Tonga to Fiji; and also to the Voltage and the Network cables that connect Nuku’alofa to Vava’u and Ha’apai has not been confirmed by authorities, though there are a number of speculations.

The full cost of repairing the breakages has not been finalised but ‘Etuini said that the bill would come to Tonga Cable Ltd.

The multi-million project was funded by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Tonga Communications Corporation (TCC), and it connected Tonga through a high speed internet service on 21 August 2013.

Later, the Tonga Government and Digicel Tonga Ltd entered into a Share Purchase Agreement that was finalised when the Tongan Government and Digicel signed a Share Purchase Agreement  SPA on 26 July 2017.

Under the SPA Digicel bought 16.6% of the Tonga Government’s shares in Tonga Cable Ltd for USD$4.19 million, which contributed to financing the extension of the fibre optic cable network to Vava’u and Ha’apai.