Tonga Cable: latency up to 6.6× normal, 13 May 2026
What we measured
| Cable | Tonga Cable |
| Segment | Nuku'alofa, TO → Suva, FJ |
| Detected | 2026-05-13 17:01 UTC |
| Resolved | 2026-05-14 09:30 UTC |
| Duration | 16h 29m |
| Observed latency | 11.2 ms |
| Baseline | 15.3 ms · 6.64× |
| Increase | +564% |
| Severity | critical |
Who is affected
Countries where Tonga Cable comes ashore, how much of their submarine diversity this cable represents, and what our measurements into them show.
| Country | Dependence on this cable | Other submarine cables | What the measurements show |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fiji resilience index: 81 · resilient |
1 of 9 cables (11% of submarine diversity) | APX East, Bulikula, Gondwana-2/Picot-2 +5 more | median 399 ms today vs 377 ms over 30 days (18 routes) - unchanged |
| Tonga resilience index: 57 · moderate |
1 of 3 cables (33% of submarine diversity) | Hawaiki, Tonga Domestic Cable Extension (TDCE) | no measurement today; median 426 ms over 30 days (7 routes) |
Dependence is structural (share of the country's submarine cables), not a traffic share: real traffic distribution across cables is not public.
Path analysis
Traffic changed route and the original path stopped responding. This is the pattern a real cable break produces.
Cross-probe verdict. Our own cross-check concluded this was an operator reroute, not a cable fault. We publish it anyway, labelled as such.
Timeline
- Alert 2026051302: critical - ratio 6.64x
- Alert #118 improving: 1/3 consecutive OK
- Alert #118 improving: 2/3 consecutive OK
- Alert #118 resolved: RTT 11.18ms (baseline 15.32ms), 3 consecutive OK
Detection method
Latency is sampled continuously from our probe network. An alert opens when round-trip time to a monitored endpoint holds above its rolling baseline, and closes automatically once it returns. Full method is described on the methodology page.