Elon Musk’s satellite Internet venture is helping to restore connectivity to the Pacific island nation of Tonga, said an official in Fiji, where the work is under way.
Tonga’s sole fiber-optic link to the Internet and the rest of the world was severed by a volcanic eruption on Jan. 15 and only limited connectivity has been possible since.
“A SpaceX team is now in Fiji establishing a Starlink gateway station to reconnect Tonga to the world,” Fiji Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said on Twitter.
Photo: AP
Starlink is a division of Tesla chief executive Musk’s SpaceX aerospace company and last month Musk himself had taken to Twitter to mention that Starlink might be able to help.
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano eruption triggered a tsunami that destroyed villages and resorts and blanketed the capital of the nation of about 105,000 people in ash, as well as cutting the fiber-optic communications cable.
The timing of SpaceX’s work is not clear, although Fijian Broadcasting Corp, citing Sayed-Khaiyum, said engineers would operate a ground station in Fiji for six months.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment. Tonga’s prime minister’s office and state telecom Tonga Communications Corp could not immediately be reached by telephone or e-mail.
Refinitiv shipping data show that cable repair ship Reliance has been off the coast of Tonga’s main island for nearly a week as it seeks to fix the damaged subsea cable.
Any improvement in communications is likely to be a relief for Tongans who have struggled to stay in touch with relatives abroad and to assist recovery efforts that have also been hampered by a COVID-19 lockdown.
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