A Pacific archipelago is without Internet for 11 days: "People want Facebook, but we have no food"

Tongan officials said Thursday that they were hoping residents could check Facebook and YouTube again over the weekend., once the experts have successfully repaired the underwater cable that connects the Pacific nation to the rest of the world.

Tonga was disconnected from the virtual world 11 days ago when the fiber optic cable was cut. Initially, Internet access was almost completely lost and international calls could not be made.

Limited access has been re-established by satellite, but the authorities blocked the use of social networks for most people to preserve bandwidth.

Residents and contractors say that they had difficulties for many tasks, from reading emails to processing credit card payments.

Piveni Piukala, director of Tonga Cable Ltd., the company operating the cable, told The Associated Press that he believed that boat cut the cable into several parts by sliding an anchor on the seabed. He added that the national cable connecting the main island of Tonga to others had also been damaged.

He added that the experts repair the cable and hope to finish the work Friday afternoon.then they can perform tests to restore the service for the weekend.

Piukala said he identified a tanker in the area when the cable was cutand who will work with the port authorities and the police to determine whether there has been negligence.

Repairs will cost more than a million dollars, pointed out Piukala, a money that society can not afford to spend.

Tonga has just over 100,000 inhabitants. It exports some agricultural products, but depends on foreign aid and remittances from abroad.

Piukala said its priority was to restore Internet access for government agencies and industries such as airlines and banks.

"We understand that people need Facebook, but we can not talk about superfluous things when we are stuck on an island without food," he added.