Extremely Offline: What Happened When a Pacific Island Was Cut Off From the Internet

In this adaptation from his forthcoming book, The Web Beneath the Waves: The Fragile Cables That Connect our World, Samanth Subramanian reflects on the massive volcanic eruption in January 2022 that ripped apart the one internet cable leading into Tonga. The country was suddenly cut off from the world and thrown into chaos—proving just how dependent we are on these “fragile cables.”

The first fallout was communication, of course. In the aftermath of a disaster, even the humble text message assumes grave importance. Are you safe? Is your house still standing? Is the water safe to drink? Tonga runs on Facebook Messenger, particularly on its outer islands, where the phone service is spotty, and without it people had to take to the road – or the sea, or the air – to find anything out. Australia and New Zealand had to send reconnaissance planes over the islands, so that their pilots could eyeball the extent of the damage.

Commerce broke down. Since this happened in the middle of the Covid pandemic, DHL was flying only one plane a week to Tonga – but without the internet, Vea couldn’t file or receive manifests online. The ATMs went dead, because banks couldn’t check how much money their customers had in their accounts – and that, in an economy still accustomed to cash, immediately put livelihoods in danger. Owners of fisheries and farms of squash and breadfruit were unable to fill out the compliance and quarantine forms needed to export their produce. Tongans living overseas couldn’t wire funds home to help their families – and at the time, foreign remittances made up 44% of the country’s GDP.