As of 22 February, 90 percent of data, SMS, and voice services on Tongatapu have been restored, following repair work successfully carried out on the undersea communications cable in Tonga, which was damaged during the volcanic eruption on 15 January. A volcanic eruption in the South Pacific Ocean in January 2022 caused a tsunami and damaged an undersea fiber-optic telecommunication cable that connects Tonga, a Polynesian archipelago, to the rest of the world. Few know that the backbone of the internet is made up of close a million miles of. Loss of Tonga's telecommunication – what happened, how was it managed and what were the consequences? Ed. In January 2022 the subsea volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai in Tonga had a major eruption which also cut the country's communication lines nationally, between Tonga's inhabited islands and the. As Tonga's Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano began to erupt on January 15, 2022, it sent more than tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean — some forms of communications in the region were sent into the dark, too. The eruption broke an underwater communications cable, leaving most of the island. More than a year after an underwater volcano caused a tsunami — and cut off the country from the rest of the world — the World Food Programme is working with the government to stay one step ahead of catastrophe Participants in a WFP-backed training in Nuku'Alofa test their radio knowhow.