By Linny Folau

Tonga's broken submarine telecommunications cable is not where it is supposed to be. A search last night by an ROV from the cable ship Reliance, could not locate the break, after it arrived in the area yesterday.

“They have a good idea of where the break is. However, their search last night, did not find the cable break. It appears that the shockwaves or tsunami waves pushed the cable away from where it is supposed to be,” the CEO of Tonga Cable Ltd., James Panuve, told Matangi Tonga this afternoon.

The international fibre optic cable broke on Jan. 15, following the eruption of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai (HTHH) submarine volcano, which generated powerful radial tsunamis. The break plunged Tonga into digital darkness, and since then limited communications have been established using satellite connectivity.

After the Reliance arrived off Tongatapu at around midday on Thursday Feb. 3, James said that it travelled to the suspected “cable break site” and checked that the submarine site is safe and secure for them to work in.

“From yesterday afternoon to now, they have been trying to locate where the cable break is.”

He said that the Reliance had since moved closer to land to pick up the cable path from its Tongatapu end, and then follow it back out to the open sea to try and reach where the break is.

The international cable lies about 44km south of the Hunga volcano. 

“The domestic cable is about 7-8 km east of HTHH, but the break is about 22km south-east of HTHH.”

There is also concern that there might be another eruption.

“Yes, that is, of course, a concern in regards to any volcanic eruption and they are keeping a close watch of the volcano and are connected to the various international geological and early warning stations,” James said.

The estimated time to fix International cable is one week.

“It can be longer, can be shorter. Really depends on extent of damage once they locate the cable break. For the domestic, they will allow another week to check it out.”

The Reliance is the same cable boat that repaired the cable last time it broke in January 2019, when a ship's anchor dragged and severed it.

This time, during COVID restrictions, the cable repair ship is not docked and is not planning to come to dock. He said the ship is expected to be working out at the cable break sites and will depart Tonga waters when the task is completed.

There are around 60 people on the Reliance. “They are fully self-contained and they don't really need to go to shore for at least an extended period of over a month. They are hoping that they finish everything and go to PNG,” said James

Tonga Cable Ltd. is not involved in any data capacity roll out in Tonga. “Our customers are TCC and Digicel and they are doing their own,” he said.