Tonga cable cut (2022)
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption on January 15, 2022 cut Tonga's only international cable: five weeks almost without internet, the extreme case of a single point of failure.
On January 15, 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai subsea volcano erupted, the most violent eruption measured in a century. The tsunami and underwater flows cut the cable linking Tonga to Fiji, more than 800 kilometers long, and the domestic cable between the islands. The country had no other cable. For days, its communications with the world went through a few satellite phones, then through satellite capacity leased in a hurry, for a population of 100,000. The cable ship Reliance, sent from Papua New Guinea, restored the international link on February 22, five weeks later. The domestic cable took much longer. The case looks remote for a European market. Yet it shows what a single point of failure weighs when there is no backup route, and how much repair depends on a handful of cable ships worldwide. An island, an archipelago, a region served by a single landing station, a data center connected by a single fiber: the underwriter's question is the same, and the answer is counted in weeks.
Constructed example: a data center on a Mediterranean island is connected to the mainland by two cables, but both land on the same beach. The underwriter visiting the site asks for the route map, finds that the two cables share their first twenty kilometers, and applies the highest utility failure deductible in his rate book.
Tonga cable, Tonga Cable cut, Hunga Tonga cable, Tonga internet blackout
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