February 17th. 2022. CEO for MEIDECC and Department of Communications received, 50 VSAT Terminals kindly offered and donated by SpaceX and Starlink on Tuesday 15th February 2022, to the Government of Tonga for their relief efforts in response to the tsunami disaster that destroyed Tonga’s only Submarine Fibre Cable. 

CEO for MEIDECC, Mr. Paula Ma'u and the Department of Communication team Mr. 'Alifeleti Tu'ihalamaka (Director) and Mr. Stan 'Ahio (Senior Telecom Engineer). 

Mr. Ma’u acknowledged receipt of the terminals “and if I may at this juncture, on behalf of the Hon. Prime Minister and Government, we would like to express our outmost gratitude to Mr. Ellon Musk and SpaceX for his willingness to help Tonga restore internet at this most difficult and challenging time for internet connectivity. These terminals are planned to be deployed at strategic locations throughout Tonga to ensure connection and communications are maintained, particularly for the disaster response operation.”

 Ms. Monalisa Palu of Ministry of Health (MOH), Director of Communication Dept, MEIDECC Mr. 'Alifeleti Tu'ihalamaka, Mr. Sione Hufanga from UNDP and CEO for MEIDECC Mr. Paula Ma'u. 

SpaceX and Starlink is a global satellite broadband internet service provider company originally from the United States owned by a prominent engineer Elon Musk. 

Technical staff from SpaceX and Government are currently configuring the instalment of these equipment, and expected to be launched next week.

END. 

Issued by the: Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change & Communications.