[Starlink] Tonga's international cable is back up

[Nathan Owens]

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1497258566347943936

On Fri, Feb 25, 2022 at 9:15 AM Nathan Owens <nathan at nathan.io> wrote:

> 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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>
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