Internet outage in Tonga

Tonga has been facing Internet outage due to the volcanic eruption since 15 January. Except for a few, mostly private satellite connections, almost 105,000 residents are almost entirely unreachable, according to the BBC. It is reported that a fault in the international cable 37 kilometres from Tonga’s capital has developed, with a further fault in a domestic cable 47 km from the capital, and that it may take weeks to repair the fibre-optic cable that has been cut on the seabed. While Tonga had signed a 15-year deal with Kacific for satellite connectivity, the deal was never enforced, and is now sitting in arbitration in Singapore.