13 October 2025
Internet connectivity in the southeastern towns of Popondetta and Alotau in Papua New Guinea has been disrupted following a subsea cable break, likely caused by a recent earthquake.
Papua New Guinea’s state-owned telecoms wholesaler, PNG DataCo, reported the issue on social media, indicating a network failure on its Kumul Submarine Cable Network (KSCN) linking Madang and Alotau.
The fault emerged after a 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck near Lae, Papua New Guinea’s second-largest city, on Tuesday. Lae is situated between Madang and Alotau, the two towns affected by the cable outage. DataCo’s engineers are actively investigating the fault’s location to facilitate repairs. In the meantime, the company advised internet service providers (ISPs) to switch to redundant links where possible to maintain connectivity until full service can be restored.
The earthquake also caused widespread disruptions in other regions, including the New Guinea Islands, Momase, and the Highlands. However, DataCo confirmed that all affected links in these areas had been restored and stabilised.
