Developing nations: The dilemma surrounding Tonga’s broken internet cable
The world revolves around the internet. A vast system of interconnected networks which is entangled in every aspect of daily life, from the light switches in our homes to social media; it has become an essential for keeping up to date. In January 2022, the undersea fibre optic communications cable facilitating internet access in the South Pacific Island nation of Tonga was severed by a volcanic eruption. ‘Big Tech’ companies turned a blind eye as an entire population was cut off from the rest of the world for 5 weeks. What does Tonga’s experience teach us about the technological divide between developing nations and the Western world, and are there any signs of improvement?
Submarine cables are the backbone of the internet that provides connectivity across expansive physical distances mapping around the globe. Currently, around 99% of international internet traffic is carried through an estimated 436 cables over 1.3 million kilometres. Every Western country has several cables feeding into it and if one were to break, it would not be a major issue. In comparison, there is only one crucial cable feeding into Tonga so when the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted on January 15th 2022, this cable was severely damaged, and the island was left isolated in a cataclysmic internet blackout. Tonga has a populationof around 110,000 people and the country faced economic difficulties due to COVID-19, leaving the country reliant on foreign development assistance in the form of loans and direct aid. A natural disaster of this sort did not only displace Tonga’s inhabitants and cause immense distress, but also destabilised its already vulnerable economy. The priority of the country’s leaders was to ensure access to food, water, and emergency care, meaning a cable repair was further down on the list of concerns. Principal Engineer at Virgin Media, Peter Jamieson, suggested that the internet cable could have been fixed within 5-7 days by sending out a correctly equipped cable-repair boat to retrieve the broken end and reattach it to a fresh cable onboard. While the recovery process was understandably delayed because of safety concerns after the eruption, this incident uncovers a larger issue concerning the lack of equality between Tonga and the Western World in terms of access to vital infrastructure. Countries are being denied the opportunity to flourish in the age of the internet because there is no major profit incentive for corporations, such as Google, to lay more cable connections.
This is not the first occasion where Tonga has been disconnected from the world. In 2019, a cable break occurred due to a ship’s anchor, and the country signed a 15-year deal to gain satellite connectivity to prevent future disruption. In theory, the agreement would reduce Tonga’s reliance on their single cable link and provide its people with the ability to continue their everyday lives using the internet. However, the cost of the satellite has reduced its permitted users to government officials and selected businesses, and any mobile network connection within the country is limited to 2G coverage. Telephone links between Tonga and the wider world have started to be reconnected, but some people are reporting to only be able to make calls and not receive them. This stark display of the fragility of modern technology emphasises how corporate greed has become more important than quality of life. It is easy to see the internet as an ‘ethereal cloud’ and forget that it is comprised of physical parts that can break. The incidents in Tonga should remind the West to not take its infrastructure for granted.
The initial cost and financial responsibilities of installing more cables makes ‘Big Tech’ corporations unlikely to act to improve the situation. There is no economic benefit for these companies to inspire them to build in Tonga. Until they deem the country to be worth the difficulty of installation, the Western world will keep progressing further into an era of technology and unfairly leave behind a nation with rich culture and blossoming ventures in agriculture and tourism.
Tonga has now been reconnected to the outside world and Tongans are able to successfully reach friends and family oversees. The Prime Minister of Tonga, Siaosi Sovaleni, stated, ‘it's also a learning experience on how we use communication and what communication means to us in terms of carrying out our duties.’ Companies, such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, are aiding in satellite improvements to help upgrade the connection and, whilst there have been talks of obtaining support from the New Zealand and Australian governments to analyse the improvements necessary to create a backup system, the process is slow moving and cost remains the crucial issue.
The divide between technological developments in the Western world and countries such as Tonga is expanding. The impact of this natural disaster draws attention to the faults in having a single cable connecting an entire nation and will hopefully spur aid donors to act to ensure that every South Pacific nation has more than one form of communication link to avoid redundancy. An urgent discussion needs to take place to assure the future of development in Tonga and the prosperity of people in the Tongan diaspora.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the wider St. Andrews Foreign Affairs Review team.
