A team of SpaceX engineers is currently in Fiji to install a Starlink Gateway station that will restore internet access to the Kingdom of Tonga islands after the single undersea fiber-optic cable connecting them to the world wide web was damaged in a volcanic eruption last month — reports FBCNews (via Tesmanian; (use coupon TESLANORTH10 to save 10% off Tesla floor mats and more).
On January 15, an underwater volcano erupted near Tonga, sending shockwaves throughout the kingdom and the neighboring Fiji and Samoa islands and creating a tsunami that caused extensive damage to local agriculture and industry.
The disaster also took out the archipelago’s only subsea internet cable, fixing which is both expensive and takes a lot of time. The cable owner estimates it will take around a month to restore internet connectivity to the region.
Days after the fact, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk offered to bring Starlink broadband service to the region to help first responders and communities communicate for disaster relief operations.
“Could people from Tonga let us know if it is important for SpaceX to send over Starlink terminals?” Musk wrote on Twitter.
“This is a hard thing for us to do right now, as we don’t have enough satellites with laser links and there are already geo sats that serve the Tonga region. That is why I’m asking for clear confirmation,” he added in a follow-up tweet.
SpaceX teams are now reportedly setting up a Starlink Gateway in the neighboring Island of Fiji, which will function as an antenna and will connect to a local data center, linking nearby users to Starlink satellites and, by extension, the internet.
Fiji’s Acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said that SpaceX has been cleared to operate the ground station for six months as part of a “temporary emergency telecommunications license” to provide an internet gateway to help the disaster-struck Tonga Islands.
Starlink is a high-speed satellite internet service from SpaceX designed to provide affordable internet at viable speeds anywhere and everywhere across the globe. As of last month, there are 1,469 active satellites stationed in low Earth orbit (LEO) as part of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation.
According to recent launch data from SpaceX, Starlink is currently available in 27 countries and has over 145,000 active users.
