Reuters reported on the 19th that international phone connections to the island nation of Tonga, which were cut off last weekend by a subsea volcanic eruption in the South Pacific, have been restored.
According to the report, local telecommunication company Digicell issued a statement on its website on the same day and said, “International call service has been restarted.”
As international phone connections are restored, details of the damage caused by the volcanic eruption are expected to be announced. Earlier, the Tongan government said in a statement the day before that “at least three people were killed and many were injured.”
Meanwhile, the volcanic eruption damaged submarine cables and could take weeks or more for internet connections to be restored, Reuters reported.
Earlier on the 15th, an undersea volcano, Hunga Tonga, Hunga Hapai, erupted in the waters 65km north of the Tonga capital, Nuku’alofa, and a 15m-high tsunami hit Tonga. At this time, the submarine cable was damaged and the telephone line was cut off, leaving about 100,000 Tongan residents in ‘digital darkness’.
(Seoul = News 1)
/cloudfront-ap-northeast-1.images.arcpublishing.com/chosun/S45NNBMRMZBURK7EB7RFC7EPT4.png?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1)
