© NEIL SANDS, AFP/File
Tonga, which lies nearly 3,300 kilometres (2,000 miles) east of Australia, was plunged into digital darkness for a fortnight.
Tonga, which lies nearly 3,300 kilometres (2,000 miles) east of Australia, was plunged into digital darkness for a fortnight.
The sudden internet outage on January 20 brought an abrupt halt to many businesses and cut access to social media -- the community's lifeline to the outside world.
"We had to learn how to talk to each other without internet messaging," Joshua Savieti, who works in the creative arts, said of the involuntary digital detox.
"We didn't know anything, what was going on, anything on the news, (or) if there was a cyclone coming."
It took 13 days to find the fault -- a severed undersea cable -- and reconnect Tonga, which lies nearly 2,400 kilometres (1,500 miles) northeast of New Zealand.
During the blackout, a small, locally operated satellite service helped maintain limited service, but the speed was a throwback to dial-up days.
To conserve capacity officials filtered out social media, cutting families off from relatives and friends overseas and dealing a blow to companies which operate through Facebook.
Comment: If he was lying about having brain cancer, he's more than likely lying about being bipolar. The only disorder he can truly claim is chronic fib-itis.