Cable repair ship locates underwater problem as Tonga Communication Corporation increases satellite internet capacity

The break in the underwater cable that has hampered internet operations in Tonga has been located.

However, there has been no indication of how long it will take to repair the break.

The cable repair ship Reliance located the fault and reported that the cable had moved south east from where it was laid.

The cause of the damage has not yet been determined.

The Reliance was docked at the Queen Salote wharf in Nuku’alofa Monday.

Meanwhile, the Tonga Communication Corporation has engaged a number of satellite providers to increase TCC’s internet capacity.

TCC CEO Timote Katoanga said these included Spark New Zealand,  Intelsat, Speedcast from Australia and Ezynet in Tonga.

Katoanga, said there was no plan to increase the TP$3 (US$1.31) charge for customers using its wi-fi.

He said the free wi-fi was provided because after the outage occurred the satellite internet was not immediately available through telephone lines and telephone calls overseas were also been cut off.

He said once the satellite internet became available for homes and businesses through landline and overseas telephone calls last week, the free wi-fi service was removed. .

SOURCE: KANIVA TONGA NEWS/PACNEWS