[Starlink] Tonga's international cable is back up

[Nathan Owens]

Per the Starlink 4-11 Launch webcast just minutes ago, they have launched
service in Tonga.

On Fri, Feb 25, 2022 at 9:12 AM Ulrich Speidel <u.speidel at auckland.ac.nz>
wrote:

> Matangitonga said that Starlink wanted to launch this week. But I haven't
> heard confirmation from anyone that they actually have.
>
> I guess a dishy without a link might still make a nice coffee table if
> nothing else & might even keep your coffee at temperature for a bit longer,
> but seriously: I suppose they must think in earnest that they'll be able to
> deliver at least some service some percentage of the time, which is more
> than some of the smaller places have right now. And I don't really want to
> dump on them - at least they tried, as did with varying levels of success
> almost everybody else in the satellite business, and that's really all you
> can ask for.
>
> Tongans are also an incredibly patient and grateful people, whatever they
> have they make do with. I first had plenty of opportunity to witness this
> when we went there on our honeymoon in 2003. One of the island villages we
> stayed on in the Ha'apai group had piped water to the beachfront properties
> installed yonks ago, before they got electricity. Then the Australians
> brought electricity around 2002 & used a trench digger to put the cable in
> along the main drag, unaware that there were water pipes in the ground. The
> locals were too grateful for the electricity to complain that they now
> needed to walk to the cistern to get their water, and the problem remained
> unsolved a year later - we had to wash from big barrels and a bit of
> rainwater off the roof. As we left Ha'apai after a hair-raising boat
> passage in a 4 m boat in 6 m swells, we didn't have a flight booked, so
> went to the Ha'apai office of the long since defunct Royal Tongan Airlines
> to book ourselves on the next flight out. The two ladies in the office gave
> us their most welcoming smiles, along with the regret that they couldn't
> book us a ticket as the computer were down. We asked how long such outages
> typically lasted and were told that they didn't know but this one had
> lasted three months already. We then made our way to the airport with the
> help of a few bored Mormon missionaries. We were the only people there
> until the station manager turned up. He reckoned there would be seats and
> told us that he was the local baker as well and had been trying out artisan
> bread recipes, which the locals liked, but was finding it difficult to get
> the right flour. Nice chat! Eventually the plane arrived early without any
> passengers. Pilots and station manager spent ten seconds bitching about
> their employer (rightfully so, a long story I shan't repeat - but neither
> the employees' nor the management's fault, though), then the pilots decided
> that they wanted lunch in Vava'u and off we took 15 minutes ahead of
> schedule...
> On 22/02/2022 8:45 pm, Daniel AJ Sokolov @mobile wrote:
>
> So the Starlink terminals have arrived on Tongatapu, but are not
> operational yet?
>
> Cheers
> Daniel
>
>
> On February 22, 2022 7:31:25 a.m. UTC, Ulrich Speidel
> <ulrich at cs.auckland.ac.nz> <ulrich at cs.auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
> >FWIW... this restores connectivity to ~80% of Tonga's population.
> >
> >The domestic cable may be up to 9 months off, depending on cable lead
> >time, apparently it's got to come from France. In the interim, there's
> >work on more satellite connectivity, I heard from a satellite ISP in NZ
> >today that they were about to ship a few units for Eutelsat links up. I
> >haven't heard any further about operational readiness of Starlink, but
> >have heard from a well-connected source that the dishys delivered to
> >Tonga will remain in Tongan government service in underconnected places
> >if and when service becomes available.
> >
> >I would expect them to hang onto a couple of units for Tongatapu just in
> >case there'll be more turbidity currents messing with the cable, heaven
> >forbid.
> >
> >--
> >****************************************************************
> >Dr. Ulrich Speidel
> >
> >School of Computer Science
> >
> >Room 303S.594 (City Campus)
> >
> >The University of Auckland
> >u.speidel at auckland.ac.nz
> >http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/
> >****************************************************************
> >
> >
> >
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> --
> ****************************************************************
> Dr. Ulrich Speidel
>
> School of Computer Science
>
> Room 303S.594 (City Campus)
>
> The University of Aucklandu.speidel at auckland.ac.nz http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/
> ****************************************************************
>
>
>
>
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