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 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 > 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@auckland.ac.nz > >http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/ > >**************************************************************** > > > > > > > >_______________________________________________ > >Starlink mailing list > >Starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net > >https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/starlink > > -- > **************************************************************** > Dr. Ulrich Speidel > > School of Computer Science > > Room 303S.594 (City Campus) > > The University of Aucklandu.speidel@auckland.ac.nz http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/ > **************************************************************** > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Starlink mailing list > Starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net > https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/starlink >