Re: Coverage of the .to internet outage
Got an Intelsat press release which may be of interest to folks following the situation in Tonga. I wish I could include just a URL, but they sent it to be as text so I am including the full thing: --- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 21, 2022 Intelsat and Partners Bring Emergency Connectivity to Tonga McLean, Va. – Intelsat, operator of the world’s largest integrated satellite and terrestrial network, in cooperation with Telstra and Spark deployed emergency communications services to support humanitarian aid to Tonga and the archipelago for Digicel Tonga and Tonga Communications Corporation. The undersea volcano, Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai, erupted on Jan. 15, 40 miles north of Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa. The volcanic explosion and subsequent tsunami knocked out the undersea internet cables, disconnecting the region of 100,000 as residents sought higher ground with the onslaught of rising water and dangerously high waves. Intelsat is providing space-based broadband connectivity on Horizons 3e and Intelsat 18, while partners, Telstra and Spark, are providing the ground infrastructure, including VSAT hubs at their teleports, uplink, internet access and remote kits. The services provided are now fully provisioned expanding broadband and voice services. Additionally, Intelsat is providing services in conjunction with Optus to the New Zealand Defence Force, who will provide humanitarian support in Tonga. “Communications infrastructure is essential to assisting the residents, coordinating medical staff and providing supplies, clean food and water and basic human needs,” said Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler. “Our hearts go out to the residents of Tonga and all impacted by this devastation, and we’re working with our partners to play a role in supporting the community in their time of need.” Intelsat’s swift response is a testament to its communications infrastructure over the Pacific Islands, operational efficiencies, and longstanding commitment to serving the region. It is the quintessential demonstration of satellite solutions’ near-instantaneous communications activation in areas where disasters have crippled terrestrial networks. In 2019, Tonga lost internet access for nearly two weeks when a fiber-optic cable was severed. Intelsat played a significant role in restoring the island's restoration connectivity by providing satellite capacity on Horizons 3e and Intelsat18 at that time. -- Joel M Snyder, 1404 East Lind Road, Tucson, AZ, 85719 Senior Partner, Opus One Phone: +1 520 324 0494 j...@opus1.comhttp://www.opus1.com/jms
Re: Coverage of the .to internet outage
It appears that Aaron C. de Bruyn via NANOG said: >> If you're a small pacific island nation state with a limited budget, and a >> working submarine cable, maintaining a SCPC geostationary satellite service >> that might be $20,000 a month (on 36-60 month term) in transponder kHz may >> seem like a very large ongoing expense. > >Redundancy seems like it could be covered by increasing the cost of a .to >domain. I think you vastly overestimate how much money there is in domain registrations if your name is not Verisign or Godaddy. >DNS for .to domains seems to be working just fine, but whois lookups for >.to domains fail with a timeout. Well, sure, the DNS has mirrors all over the place: $ host -t ns to. to name server frankfurt.tonic.to. to name server singapore.tonic.to. to name server colo.tonic.to. to name server tonic.to. to name server sydney.tonic.to. to name server newyork.tonic.to. to name server helsinki.tonic.to. Dunno why WHOIS would fail since traceroutes say the WHOIS server is in California. R's, John
Re: Coverage of the .to internet outage
From: "Jay R. Ashworth" This piece: https://www.npr.org/2022/01/18/1073863310/an-undersea-cable-fault-could-cut-tonga-from-the-rest-of-the-world-for-weeks drills down to this piece with slightly more detail: https://www.reuters.com/markets/funds/undersea-cable-fault-could-cut-off-tonga-rest-world-weeks-2022-01-18/ I'm told their national carrier is trying to bring in a ground station as well, though not whom it will connect to. -- On Wed, 19 Jan 2022 at 15:50, Scott Weeks wrote: It's hard to imagine they don't have a lot of Kacific Terminals or other satellite connectivity there. That's what most of the South Pacific uses and all used before the cables were laid. Maybe the journalists missed that like they miss things when talking about our stuff? --- On 1/20/2022 8:18 AM, Eric Kuhnke wrote: If you're a small pacific island nation state with a limited budget, and a working submarine cable, maintaining a SCPC geostationary satellite service that might be $20,000 a month (on 36-60 month term) in transponder kHz may seem like a very large ongoing expense. Ideally it would be possible to keep a backup circuit operating in a very narrow section of kHz during normal times. Along with the contractual ability to significantly expand it on demand, but more capacity on the same satellite/same polarity without physical reconfiguration of the remote end earth station may not always be possible. --- Digicel just got them back online via sat: https://www.zdnet.com/article/digicel-reconnects-tongan-users-via-satellite-to-rest-of-the-world Digicel reconnects Tongan users via satellite to rest of the world "Telco handing out free SIMs to let people reconnect." "Digicel said on Wednesday night it successfully re-established international communication with its Tongan network thanks to a satellite link." "A preliminary technical fault investigation has established that there are two separate undersea cable breaks. The first between TCL cable landing station Sopu, Tongatapu, and FINTEL cable landing station in Suva, Fiji," Digicel said. "The international cable break is approximately 37km offshore from Tonga. The second cable break is on the domestic cable which is near the area of the recent volcanic activity." scott
Re: Coverage of the .to internet outage
On Thu, Jan 20, 2022 at 10:21 AM Eric Kuhnke wrote: > If you're a small pacific island nation state with a limited budget, and a > working submarine cable, maintaining a SCPC geostationary satellite service > that might be $20,000 a month (on 36-60 month term) in transponder kHz may > seem like a very large ongoing expense. > Redundancy seems like it could be covered by increasing the cost of a .to domain. DNS for .to domains seems to be working just fine, but whois lookups for .to domains fail with a timeout. -A
Re: Coverage of the .to internet outage
If you're a small pacific island nation state with a limited budget, and a working submarine cable, maintaining a SCPC geostationary satellite service that might be $20,000 a month (on 36-60 month term) in transponder kHz may seem like a very large ongoing expense. Ideally it would be possible to keep a backup circuit operating in a very narrow section of kHz during normal times. Along with the contractual ability to significantly expand it on demand, but more capacity on the same satellite/same polarity without physical reconfiguration of the remote end earth station may not always be possible. On Wed, 19 Jan 2022 at 15:50, Scott Weeks wrote: > > --- j...@baylink.com wrote: > From: "Jay R. Ashworth" > > This piece: > > > https://www.npr.org/2022/01/18/1073863310/an-undersea-cable-fault-could-cut-tonga-from-the-rest-of-the-world-for-weeks > > drills down to this piece with slightly more detail: > > > https://www.reuters.com/markets/funds/undersea-cable-fault-could-cut-off-tonga-rest-world-weeks-2022-01-18/ > > I'm told their national carrier is trying to bring in a ground station as > well, though not whom it will connect to. > -- > > > It's hard to imagine they don't have a lot of Kacific Terminals or other > satellite connectivity there. > > That's what most of the South Pacific uses and all used before the cables > were laid. Maybe the journalists > missed that like they miss things when talking about our stuff? > > scott > >
Re: Coverage of the .to internet outage
--- sur...@mauigateway.com wrote: --- j...@baylink.com wrote: From: "Jay R. Ashworth" This piece: https://www.npr.org/2022/01/18/1073863310/an-undersea-cable-fault-could-cut-tonga-from-the-rest-of-the-world-for-weeks drills down to this piece with slightly more detail: https://www.reuters.com/markets/funds/undersea-cable-fault-could-cut-off-tonga-rest-world-weeks-2022-01-18/ I'm told their national carrier is trying to bring in a ground station as well, though not whom it will connect to. -- It's hard to imagine they don't have a lot of Kacific Terminals or other satellite connectivity there. That's what most of the South Pacific uses and all used before the cables were laid. Maybe the journalists missed that like they miss things when talking about our stuff? -- PFFT, no sooner than I hit send and the answer comes out of the PICISOC list: https://www.capacitymedia.com/articles/3830551/dispute-over-57m-impedes-moves-to-re-connect-tonga-to-the-world "Dispute over $5.7m impedes moves to re-connect Tonga to the world" "The government has still not paid Kacific for a 15-year deal, signed three years ago, to provide satellite back-up in just such an eventuality." "Now Kacific says it is “standing by” to connect the islands and its 105,000 people, who were cut off by the weekend’s volcano." "owever, company noted that “the previous government was unwilling to perform the contract, and it is currently subject to arbitration in Singapore”. Patouraux said: “All we need is to activate that service and perform that contract. We are now awaiting instructions. We have one simple message for the government of Tonga. We can help. Please get in touch.” Notably: "Getting in touch might be a problem, as both the 827km Tonga Cable from Fiji is cut about 37km from the cable landing station, and so is the 410km Tonga Domestic Cable Extension, which connects the main island with two outlying islands to the north. scott
Re: Coverage of the .to internet outage
--- j...@baylink.com wrote: From: "Jay R. Ashworth" This piece: https://www.npr.org/2022/01/18/1073863310/an-undersea-cable-fault-could-cut-tonga-from-the-rest-of-the-world-for-weeks drills down to this piece with slightly more detail: https://www.reuters.com/markets/funds/undersea-cable-fault-could-cut-off-tonga-rest-world-weeks-2022-01-18/ I'm told their national carrier is trying to bring in a ground station as well, though not whom it will connect to. -- It's hard to imagine they don't have a lot of Kacific Terminals or other satellite connectivity there. That's what most of the South Pacific uses and all used before the cables were laid. Maybe the journalists missed that like they miss things when talking about our stuff? scott
Coverage of the .to internet outage
This piece: https://www.npr.org/2022/01/18/1073863310/an-undersea-cable-fault-could-cut-tonga-from-the-rest-of-the-world-for-weeks drills down to this piece with slightly more detail: https://www.reuters.com/markets/funds/undersea-cable-fault-could-cut-off-tonga-rest-world-weeks-2022-01-18/ I'm told their national carrier is trying to bring in a ground station as well, though not whom it will connect to. Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth Baylink j...@baylink.com Designer The Things I Think RFC 2100 Ashworth & Associates http://www.bcp38.info 2000 Land Rover DII St Petersburg FL USA BCP38: Ask For It By Name! +1 727 647 1274
