Excerpt from I.C. Campbell's "Island Kingdom, Tonga Ancient & Modern"
International Radio communications and telephones came to Tonga in the 1920s which had been in consideration as early as 1913 and been operation before 1920. At first this simply provided a means of sending and receiving messages between Nuku'alofa and another station outside Tonga (in Fiji, or on ships). A few years later, a Nuku'alofa-Vava'u link was established, and in 1929 substations were established in Ha'apai, Niuafo'ou and Niuatoputapu. At the same time, the Nuku'alofa station was upgraded to improve international contact. The main use for such facilities was for shipping, and for notification of local emergencies. Broadcast radio came to Tonga in 1933 when the British shortwave service was extended to the Pacific, and in 1935 New Zealand began broadcasting to the Pacific.
Telephone regulations were published in 1920, and by 1929 there were ninety-two telephone subscribers, all of them in Nuku'alofa, and all of them papaalangi except for royalty and Tongan members of cabinet.
Both International and Domestic telephony services (telephone, fax, Internet) are provided by the government corporation Tonga Telecom.
Local Exchanges are a mixture of modern digital systems and pre-historic mechanical switches. For the adventurous, calling a phone number on a mechanical switch is a haphazard dip into chance whether (1) a connection through the switch is available, and (2) a reliable connection from the switch to the desired line exists. Unfortunately, people on the 'old' switches have come to accept outgoing phone calls are near impossible to achieve.
The quality of service available on the existing copper (local exchange) services varies dramatically between locations, and possibly within the same building (depending on the cabling from the exchange.) Although voice is mostly acceptable, the poor quality lines cause significant problems with data connections (both facsimile and modem.)
Approximately 5% of the population have access to telephony services (Facsimile, Voice).
[ref: http://www.tongatapu.net.to]
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