Musk helping internet restoration efforts in Tonga

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is helping with internet restoration efforts in Tonga after the country was hit by two natural disasters that severed a crucial undersea fiberoptic cable.

Most people in the country were left without a reliable internet connection following a tsunami and volcanic eruption in January, which killed at least three people and caused extensive damage, The Associated Press reported.

Musk’s SpaceX had teams in Fiji, which neighbors Tonga, setting up a station that would allow Tonga residents to use the company’s satellites to get connected to the internet, a top official in Fiji said, according to the AP.

SpaceX has a network of almost 2,000 low-orbit satellites that help get internet to remote areas around the world, according to the AP. The network is called Starlink.

“Could people from Tonga let us know if it is important for SpaceX to send over Starlink terminals?” Musk tweeted following the disasters.

New Zealand lawmaker Shane Reti wrote to Musk to ask him to help provide a connection, according to the AP. “Very pleased. Elon Musk providing satellite to Tonga,” Reti tweeted in response to the news that SpaceX was working to set up a station in Fiji.

The chairperson of Tonga’s state-owned internet company, which owns the severed fiberoptic cable, told the AP it could still be more than a week until the damage to the cable is repaired.

Along with the internet outages, Tonga is facing a wave of coronavirus cases after largely avoiding the pandemic for the past two years, according to the wire service.

The U.S. announced in January that it was giving $2.5 million in relief funds to Tonga following the natural disasters.