Repairs on the domestic submarine cable system connecting Tongatapu to Ha’apai and Vava’u were completed  and back in service on Wednesday night, 12 July, after it was destroyed by the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai volcanic eruption in January 2022.

Tonga Cable Ltd today stated that the cable system had been down for almost 18-months, since it was destroyed by the eruption. The amount of cable used in the reconnecting of the cable system was just over 108km.

"The reason it has taken so long to get the domestic cable repaired is due to the lack of the required amount and type of cable to carry out the repair job. It took 5 months to confirm the amount of cable to order from ASN.

“This needed to await the survey results which were being conducted by the New Zealand organization known as the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in April/May 2022."

Once the order was placed it took ASN took about seven-months to manufacture our cable order and it took around four-months for the order to be shipped from ASN in France and another two-months for the cable ship to get to Tonga.

Meanwhile, the cable repair ship, C/S Lodbrog owned and operated jointly by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) and Optic Marine (OMS) arrived into Tonga waters, on 5 July.

Two representatives, Siumafua Moala, engineer from TCL, and Siteni ‘Ahio, senior engineer from MEIDECC, joined the ship carrying a crew of 57 during its eight-day repair task.

TCL acknowledged the support of the Government of Tonga and the financial assistance provided by the Australian High Commission towards the repair of the Tonga Cable domestic submarine cable system. Likewise family and friends on the two outer islands were also acknowledged for their patience, during the past challenging 18-months.