Elon Musk's SpaceX works to restore internet service in Tonga after a disaster

According to an official in Fiji, where the work is being done, Elon Musk's satellite internet firm is assisting with the restoration of access to the Pacific Island nation of Tonga.

A volcanic explosion on Jan. 15 cut Tonga's only optic-fibre link to the internet and the rest of the globe, and only limited communication has been possible since.

"A SpaceX team is now in Fiji establishing a Starlink gateway station to reconnect Tonga to the world," Fiji's Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said on Twitter.

Starlink is a part of Tesla CEO Elon Musk's SpaceX aerospace company, and Musk himself suggested that Starlink might be able to assist in January on Twitter.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano eruption generated a tsunami that damaged villages and resorts, coated the nation's capital in ash, and severed the nation's fiber-optic communications connection.

The exact date of SpaceX's activities is unknown, while the Fijian Broadcasting Corporation said that engineers would maintain a ground station in Fiji for six months, quoting Sayed-Khaiyum.

An emailed request for comment from SpaceX was not immediately returned. The prime minister's office and Tonga Communications Corporation, the country's national telco, could not be reached for comment.

Cable repair ships, according to Refinitiv shipping statistics. Reliance has been repairing a damaged undersea cable off the coast of Tonga's largest island for for a week.

Any improvement in communications will likely be welcomed by Tongans who have been unable to communicate with family abroad and assist with recovery efforts, which have been impeded by the COVID-19 shutdown.