[Starlink] Starlink banned in Tonga

[Ulrich Speidel]

https://talanoaotonga.to/starlink-users-in-tonga-must-pay-to-reconnect-despite-government-orders-to-stop-illegal-internet-services/

This is a tad bit surprising given that the domestic fibre cable from 
Tongatapu to Vava'u and Ha'apai was damaged at the end of June:

https://talanoaotonga.to/tonga-struggles-with-internet-outages-considers-starlink-amid-cable-repair-delay/

The likely cause is one or more underwater landslides east of the Hunga 
Tonga Hunga Ha'apai volcano triggered by an earthquake, bringing debris 
from the 2022 eruption down into the cable grounds. I can vaguely 
remember suggesting to them not to put that cable back there given that 
the trench had proven to be the submarine geological equivalent of a 
gutter. Alas that's where it ended up again.

Never a dull moment in Pacific telecommunication!

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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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