Tonga internet cut

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BarTender

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#245299 28-Jan-2019 13:44

Not specifically related to NZ but Tonga's undersea cable was cut in two places.

https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/programmes/datelinepacific/audio/2018679783/tonga-communication-links-could-be-down-a-month

Sounds like they are surviving on around 25Mbit for the whole country:

https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/380939/tonga-utility-striving-to-lift-capacity-after-cable-cut

We don't know how lucky we are.

wellygary

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#2168949 28-Jan-2019 14:05

Sure its an inconvenience, but given the story below . they will probably get by for the couple of weeks or so until its fixed

"We have been informed that 80 percent of our international traffic is from social media so that gives us a little comfort. If they told us that 80 percent of our traffic were to do with government and business and all these other important functions then we would be very worried," he said."So what we are trying to do now is we may block Facebook, Youtube and social media, in the mean time, so that we can maximise the small bandwidth that we have from the satellite on what is important for the country."

https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/pacific/380725/outage-forces-tongan-govt-to-restrict-internet

But if an anchor or other vessel equipment is found to be the source, it may see a bit more active protection work being undertaken, which would not be a bad thing...

hio77

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#2168958 28-Jan-2019 14:20

to be fair.. before the country had that undersea cable (in 2013) they had 20mbit shared across two providers, 25mbit is a bonus!

Surprised this took this long to hit gz and nznog, it was in nbr on wednesday?..

the conditions around the timing of both the cuts is quite suspicious..

Currently tonga still use satellite between the islands, with only about 23mbit feeding each of those.

https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Regional-Presence/AsiaPacific/Documents/Events/2017/Aug-ISS2017/PPT_S4_Tonga.pdf

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Darude34

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#2168965 28-Jan-2019 14:36

In similar news, Zimbabwe government just recently switched off the internet.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46917259

Yea we lucky here in little NZ.

wellygary

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#2168986 28-Jan-2019 15:11

I think it would be an interesting social experiment to slip Facebook et al into the DCEFS for a week or so and watch the response....

snnet

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#2168989 28-Jan-2019 15:16

wellygary:

I think it would be an interesting social experiment to slip Facebook et al into the DCEFS for a week or so and watch the response....

Sure would!

I still laugh at people's responses when they ask what my instagram is and I say I don't have one. Nor twitter or facebook. It's like they think you can't function without it.

Rikkitic

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#2168995 28-Jan-2019 15:19

Me neither. None of them.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

richms

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#2169018 28-Jan-2019 15:54

Well aren't you two just the best then.

Funny thing is when people ask me for my phone number and I have to tell them that I dont use it for that so there is no point them having it.

For many people facebook and instagram are how they keep in touch with people. I wouldnt even know the phone number for half the people I regually communicate with, and if some old fogey in a government department decided that one method of keeping in touch was less important than another I would be worried.

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hio77

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#2169019 28-Jan-2019 15:55

snnet:

wellygary:

I think it would be an interesting social experiment to slip Facebook et al into the DCEFS for a week or so and watch the response....

Sure would!

I still laugh at people's responses when they ask what my instagram is and I say I don't have one. Nor twitter or facebook. It's like they think you can't function without it.

particularly in rural areas, I've found the local facebook groups to be pretty good.

even for simple things, like the other day, a car unfortunately flipped on a blind corner.

passing warning out to the community, did a great bit of help in slowing traffic before the likes of fire engine and ambos were able to get out.

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coffeebaron

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#2169058 28-Jan-2019 16:07

hio77:

particularly in rural areas, I've found the local facebook groups to be pretty good.

even for simple things, like the other day, a car unfortunately flipped on a blind corner.

passing warning out to the community, did a great bit of help in slowing traffic before the likes of fire engine and ambos were able to get out.

Car flips due to driver trying to read Facebook whilst driving.

2nd car flips due to driver trying to read Facebook "car crash" alert whilst driving

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Rikkitic

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#2169059 28-Jan-2019 16:09

I wasn't actually implying any disparagement of the majority who do rely on these things, just stating that I am not one of them. I haven't found Facebook, etc., to be necessary or useful for me or the way I like to live. Also not the phone for any personal stuff but we have a lot of contact with various official local bodies and they all seem to rely on the phone, supplemented by the post. Talk about last century! For me, face to face (remember that?) and email are sufficient to keep in touch. Those who value contact with me are aware of my proclivities so it all works out just fine.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

snnet

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#2169123 28-Jan-2019 17:17

Nor was I disapproving of people using it - but I don't have to, I talk to enough people as it is :)

All I was meaning was I'd imagine the vast majority of people that appear absolutely shellshocked like I'd just done something horrific to their family when I respond that I don't have any of that would probably go into a manic frenzy for not having access to it for 2 weeks. I really believe it is an addiction for a lot of people (cue social media detox centers)

Theclaytons

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#2169501 29-Jan-2019 10:46

I'm sure the Tongan public are coping fine without Facebook. I can assure you, support a business over a severely reduced internet feed is proving problematic - especially with regard to any communications. We have gone from 20/20 connection back .5 / .5. This provides enough to replicate data and send / receive emails but nothing more.

For a while there we lost phone, internet, mobile (anything), redundant links included.

Before you get on my case, my redundancy hinged on the fibre to the island remaining intact, same as the NZ Embassy, Tongan Government did.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/6594768645.png