Tonga Internet

The previously unreported comments come amid an ongoing police investigation into the January cut, which left Tonga drastically cut internet services for 12 days.

The Turkish company Duzgit has said it's co-operating with Tongan authorities, who have stayed mum on the investigation.

But RNZ Pacific can reveal the company's ship, the Duzgit Venture, was carrying fuel for the French oil giant Total when the cable was cut.

A Total spokesperson says Duzgit told it in February that it could have "trapped a cable with its anchor" in Tonga on the first day of the outage.

Satellite operator Kacific Broadband Satellites said it had signed a 15-year agreement with the state-owned Tonga Satellite.

It would connect communities in nearly 90 remote outer islands with high speed internet, Kacific said.

Kacific chief executive Christian Patouraux said until now, rural areas depended on urban centres to distribute bandwidth to them.

"With Kacific's solution for Tonga, urban centres need rural and remote areas in reciprocal cooperation to complete the urban infrastructure build up," he said.