THE undersea fiber-optic cable in Tonga, damaged by the volcanic eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai and the subsequent tsunami in January this year, has been repaired with the country’s phone and internet service fully restored yesterday.

According to Radio New Zealand, chairman of Tonga Cable Ltd. Samiuela Fonua confirmed that the cable was restored and handed over to his company just before midday yesterday.

“It is all done now, the cable was handed over to us this morning just before noon, now it’s with the Internet Service Providers,” he said.

He added that they just had a long meeting with the cable repair team and they were preparing a presentation to Tonga’s Prime Minster Siaosi Sovaleni today.

The cable repair ship Reliance started to repair the cable on Feb. 3 and finally handed it over after 24 hours of testing Monday.

Fonua said he would not know the costs of the cable repair until his company received the invoice from the U.S. cable company Subcom, but he estimated it will cost at least US$1 million.

(SD-Agencies)