Vodafone Cook Islands Responds to Manatua Cable Outage

5 August 2026

Statement from Phillip Henderson, Vodafone Cook Islands CEO

On Tuesday 4 August at approximately 4.05 p.m Vodafone experienced an unexpected Manatua Cable outage which provides the international connectivity for fixed broadband and mobile data to the Cook Islands.  

Vodafone received no prior warning of yesterday’s fault occurring. However, our teams responded immediately and activated our contingency plans. 

This included switching to our backup O3b satellite link, which allowed us to maintain international connectivity and prevent a nationwide outage.

While services remained available, our contingency was only able to provide a quarter of our internet demand. All customers experienced slower internet speeds, increased latency and congestion. 

The impact of the current fault has been restored by rerouting traffic via Tahiti. This is on the unaffected section of the cable. This has further reduced the impact on our customers and communities and strengthened the resilience of our network.  

Separately, before Tuesday’s fault, Vodafone had been advised by Avaroa Cable Limited (ACL) of a planned cable outage scheduled for mid August to repair an existing fault.

Our teams immediately accelerated the strengthening of contingency measures already in place.

The equipment and overseas engineers required for our full response plan are expected to arrive by end of this week with installation planned for early next week to minimise any disruption to customers during the scheduled repair work.

These preparations will continue despite the current fault, ensuring additional contingency capacity is in place ahead of the planned outage.

Tuesday’s unexpected outage and the planned mid-August repair work are separate events, hence the impact on the connectivity. 

We understand the impact this outage has had and we thank our customers for their patience and understanding.  

I would also like to thank our staff for responding so quickly and working tirelessly to maintain connectivity. 

Phillip Henderson

CEO, Vodafone Cook Islands