Submarine cables today

On 15 January 2022 the undersea volcano Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai erupted, and the tsunami that followed tore through the single fibre cable linking Tonga to Fiji. A country of about a hundred thousand people dropped almost entirely off the internet, left with a thin satellite link.

The repair ship Reliance was in Singapore for a refit. She picked up crew in Papua New Guinea and spare cable in Samoa, then found not two breaks but four or five, with sections of cable carried far from where they had lain. A whole new length had to be laid. Data service came back on 22 February, more than five weeks after the eruption.