The Tonga Cable System, a 827-kilometer undersea fiber-optic line linking Tonga to Fiji, had been severed in multiple places. It was the country's only connection to the global internet — and it lay directly in the path of the volcanic explosion. Also Read: AOL Dial-Up Service Shutdown: End of an. A volcanic eruption in the South Pacific Ocean in January 2022 caused a tsunami and damaged an undersea fiber-optic telecommunication cable that connects Tonga, a Polynesian archipelago, to the rest of the world. The internet is kind of like drinking water, says UC Berkeley Professor Nicole. A single garden hose-sized cable connected Tonga to the world until a natural disaster sent the country back to 1880. Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology. It has cable landing points at Sopu, a suburb of Nukuʻalofa in Tonga, and Suva, Fiji. A colossal volcanic eruption in January 2022 ripped apart the underwater cables that connect Tonga to the world – and exposed the fragility of 21st-century life By Samanth Subramanian For a while, Sam Vea had been smelling sulphur on the air – only mildly infernal, like a distant sniff of hell, but. On April 5, 2026, we traced the route from Jerusalem and Tbilisi to Tonga Communications Corporation in Nuku'alofa. Both routes followed Cogent's backbone across three continents before handing off to Vodafone Samoa for the final Pacific Island hop. Route: Tbilisi → Tonga (339ms) Route: Jerusalem →.
