A National Party MP has called on the richest man on earth to help Tonga get its communications up and running again. 

A marine cable is expected to take weeks to repair, following last weekend's huge undersea volcanic eruption and tsunami. 

Dr Shane Reti told Francesca Rudkin he decided to Tweet Elon Musk, who owns Starlink, an internet satellite network. 

He says his message was retweeted rapidly, including by Reuters, and Musk replied, saying it could be challenging. 

“But it was his second reply about an hour later saying ‘could the people from Tonga let us know if it is important for SpaceX to send over satellite Starlink terminals’, that was the encouraging part.” 

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