Tonga’s 2022 eruption cut both subsea cables, halting ATMs, export paperwork, and foreign remittances that make up 44% of its GDP. Limited satellite bandwidth and later Starlink terminals provided only partial relief until a repair ship restored the cable weeks later—then another quake re‑severed the domestic link in 2024.
— For remittance‑dependent economies, resilient connectivity is an economic lifeline, implying policy needs redundant links and rapid satellite failover to avoid nationwide cash‑flow collapse.
msmash
2025.10.02
100% relevant
“Foreign remittances made up 44% of the country’s GDP,” and the outage froze banking and transfers until 120 Mbps of satellite bandwidth and donated Starlink terminals arrived.
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