Digital operator Digicel announced the resumption of telecom services, both domestic and international, in Tonga on Wednesday after the island nation witnessed an "unprecedented disaster": a tsunami triggered by the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcanic eruption on 15 January.
"We gave this work the highest priority, and our technical team has had sleepless nights over the past few days in trying to restore vital communication with the world," Shally Jannif, Digicel Regional CEO, said in a statement.
The network has been re-established via satellite links. The company will distribute free SIMs to locals starting Thursday, which will help them connect with family and friends overseas.
Internet services have yet to resume, as the Tongan government said that two undersea cables had been damaged due to the powerful explosion.
The government has stated that the entire agricultural sector is ruined, and people may face severe food shortages in addition to a drinking water crisis.
The nation was left entirely devastated by the volcanic eruption, and most of it remains either submerged in water or covered in volcanic ash.
As per an estimate provided by NASA researchers, the power of volcanic eruption was equivalent to 10 megatons of TNT; more than 500 times as powerful as the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War II.
Relief materials dispatched by Australia and New Zealand are expected to arrive at the Pacific Island nation on Friday.
No further deaths have been reported by the Tongan government since Tuesday, when it said that three people – one Tongan woman, one Tongan man, and one British woman – died in a tsunami triggered by the volcano eruption.