The cable repair ship Rodbrog arrive in Tongatapu on the 5th of July to pick up representatives from TCL and MEIDECC before travelling to Ha’apai to the cable location to start the repair. The ship will relay 110 to 120km of cables to replace the cable damaged by the 2021 tsunami. The repair operation is estimated to take around 7 to 10 days. The repair operation takes longer because it will first recover the northern end of the cable (near Ha’apai) and mark it with a buoy before returning to Tongatapu to recover the southern end of the cable and start relaying the new cable.

Update 6 July 2023:
The ship arrived in Ha’apai and start recovering the northern end of the cable. The cable was successfully recovered and brought on board the ship for testing before being lowered back into the seabed and marked with a buoy. The ship then returned to Tongatapu.

Update 7 July 2023:
The ship arrived in Tongatapu and start recovering the southern end of the cable. The cable was brought up on board the ship for testing and jointed with the new cable and the ship started relaying the new cable early morning July 8th.

Update 11 July 2023:
The ship reached the buoy early morning and the buoy was recovered and then the cable. The final portion of the new cable was relayed and then both ends of the cable were tested, and prepared for joint, jointing and final testing. When all parties are satisfied with the cable performance, it will be lowered back to the seabed. This process is estimated to be completed around 10 PM. The ship will travel back to Nuku’alofa to drop the representatives on board before travelling to its next destination.

Update 12 July 2023:
Submarine cable to Vava’u and Ha’apai is operational and the customer’s reps were dropped off at Nuku’alofa at 7:00 AM.

UPDATED MAR. 3: Tonga’s domestic fibre optic telecommunications cable was torn apart by tremendous forces and deeply buried under volcanic debris on the ocean floor. It may take up to a year to fix.

Up to 110km of a special cable may have to be manufactured in France and delivered if Tonga Cable Ltd. can’t source a spare cable of the same type from anyone in the world who holds a spare.

“Unfortunately, the domestic cable break will be with us for several more months,” said Tonga Cable Ltd CEO, James Panuve, yesterday, saying it would be safe to bet on a year.

The cable ship Reliance departed the cable site Monday morning, after successfully recovering both ends of the domestic cable.

He said the south end of the broken cable was found 31km from Tongatapu and the north end was located about 136km from Tongatapu. There is a gap of around 110km between the two broken ends.

“It has attempted to recover the middle section but it appears that the cable has been deeply buried under debris from the volcano eruption of 15 January. Without proper survey equipment, it is hard to tell what has happened to the cable system.  Water depth in this area is between 1.6 to 1.8km.”

Need up to 110km of special cable

He said the ship will provide Tonga Cable Ltd. with a more detailed report on their findings, “but we estimate that we are looking at needing up to 110km of this submarine cable before we can repair the damage to the domestic system. 

“The other problem is that this cable type is not easily sourced and none of our neighbouring cable operators have any of this cable type. We are looking worldwide for anyone with spare cable of this type, failing which, we will need to order it from Alcatel in France, which could take 6-9 months to manufacture and deliver.

“But as with most things, I think it would be safe to bet on a year,” James told Matangi Tonga

Seabed research needed

The seabed around the Hunga Tonga – Hunga Ha\’apai (HTHH) volcano changed dramatically during the eruptions, and the domestic cable was laid close to it. Tonga might have to rethink whether it\’s safe to lay a new cable in the same place. James hopes some proposed research of the seabed will go ahead.

“We have been contacted by a group known as the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) https://www.iscpc.org/ who are interested in sending a research vessel to do a survey of the HTHH area and our cable system to see what the seabed looks like after the devastating volcano eruption of 15 January.

“This may be of great assistance for Tonga Cable in understanding what happened to our two cable systems and possibly whether it is safe to relay our domestic cable on its original path. If successful, the research vessel may be visiting our waters in March or April of this year.”

International Cable

James also expressed his gratitude to the neighbouring cable operators in the region who helped Tonga repair the break in its international cable between Fiji and Tonga.

“Although the repair time was a bit longer than what we had originally anticipated, considering the amount of damage caused to our international cable we are lucky to have had it repaired by 22 February. 

“Some cable operators reached out to us to offer their assistance and we also had to ask some of them to lend us some of their spares, which were stored on the cable repair ship, Reliance. 

“Without their generosity and support, our international cable would not have been repaired and Tonga would still be without our normal internet speed. The assistance from the following three companies is greatly acknowledged:

• OPT-NC  New Caledonia, 59km of fibre optic cable
• Interchange Limited, Vanuatu, 8 repair kits
• Southern Cross Cable Network, Australia/New Zealand, 3 repair kits.

He said, “Tonga Cable will have to replace or reimburse these three cable companies for the spares that we utilised in our repair job.”

However, James added in an update on Mar. 3, that Southern Cross Cable Network had contacted him and said that, “in the spirit of South Pacific cooperation, we would like to give you those three spare repair kits and therefore do not need them replaced or repaid.”

So at the moment, James said that Tonga Cable is only able to provide international connectivity to Tongatapu.

“Through TCC and Digicel, this connectivity extends to ‘Eua and the surrounding small islands around Tongatapu.

“Tonga Cable is still not able to provide connectivity through its submarine cable on the domestic system which links Tongatapu to Ha‘apai and Vava‘u. As such, connectivity to the Ha‘apai and Vava’u groups are through Digicel’s and TCC’s own microwave and satellite links,” he said.

Demand for bandwidth is almost back to normal.

“We’ve noticed a 3% dip in utilization since the cable was damaged on 15 Jan.  However, we expected a bigger dip in traffic than this, given that our domestic cable is still damaged.”

This article was First published on “Matangi Tonga Online.” Here’s the link to the original article. https://matangitonga.to/2022/03/01/torn-apart-missing-fibre-optic-domestic-cable-Tonga

TCL has successfully upgraded the Ha’apai and Vava’u circuits and is now
operational.

All tests have been completed and TCL is now ready to offer more capacity on the domestic link. A total throughput of 20Gbps on the IP network both ways (Nuk-Hap-Nuk and Nuk-Vav-Nuk).

After the successful launching of the Tonga – Fiji submarine fibre optic cable, the Government of Tonga approved the extension of the cable system to outer island groups of Vava’u and Ha’apai. Tonga Cable Limited was given the task of the implementation of this project. The main objective was to provide fast, reliable, economical and efficient communication system for the people in these two island groups.

On 17 February 2017, Tonga Cable Limited was able to fulfill the above direction by signing an agreement with Alcatel Submarine Networks (a French simplified stock corporation having its registered office at 148/152, route de la Reine – 92100 Boulogne-Billancourt – France) to design, manufacture, deliver, install and commission a repeaterless fibre optic cable system between Nuku’alofa and Vava’u with branching unit and spur for Ha’apai.

Alcatel Submarine Networks was selected to make sure that technology and equipment will be provided are compatible with the existing system. The project is expected to be completed in one year.