Mumbai: Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. (Jio), India’s largest 4G and mobile broadband digital service provider, will land the next generation multi-terabit India-Asia-Xpress (IAX) undersea cable system in Hulhumale, Maldives.
The high capacity and high-speed IAX system will connect Hulhumale’ directly with World’s major internet hubs in India and Singapore.
The Minister of Economic Development, Hon. Uz Fayyaz Ismail, speaking about the launch of the Maldives’ first international cable, said: “This is the first stride towards enhancing our connectivity infrastructure and opening vast opportunities for our people through providing secure, affordable and high-quality services. We also aim to diversify our economy and establish ourselves as a key communications hub in South Asia. Aside from economic development, this will accelerate social development through high-speed internet access throughout the Maldives allowing us to attain the equitable development we seek.”
“Today’s global economy is driven by low-latency broadband, connecting people, businesses, content, and services. IAX will not only connect Maldives to the world’s content hubs, but it will also support the explosive growth in data demand expected from the new initiatives being launched by the government of Maldives,” said Mathew Oommen, President, Reliance Jio. “Jio is very pleased to be working with the government of the Maldives to help realize this ambition by providing high-quality, terabit capacity supporting Web 3.0-capable internet services.”
The IAX system originates in Mumbai in the west and connects directly to Singapore, with branches including additional landings in India, Malaysia, and Thailand. The India-Europe-Xpress (IEX) system connects Mumbai to Milan, landing in Savona, Italy, and includes additional landings in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. IAX is expected to be ready for service end-2023, while IEX will be ready for service in mid-2024.
These high capacity and high-speed systems will provide more than 200Tb/s of capacity at speeds of 100Gb/s, over 16,000 kilometers. Employing open system technology and the latest wavelength switched RoADM/branching units ensures rapid upgrade deployment and the ultimate flexibility to add/drop waves across multiple locations.
IEX and IAX together will be one of the most important developments in telecommunications infrastructure in this decade, linking India, Europe to Southeast Asia, and now the Maldives.
About Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited
Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, a subsidiary of Jio Platforms Limited, has built a world-class all IP, data strong, future proof network with latest 4G LTE technology. It is the only network conceived and born as a Mobile Video Network from the ground up and supporting Voice over LTE technology. It is future ready and can be easily upgraded to support even more data, as technologies advance on to 5G, 6G and beyond.
Jio has brought transformational changes in the Indian digital services space to enable the vision of Digital India for 1.3 billion Indians and propel India into global leadership in the digital economy. It has created an eco-system comprising of network, devices, applications and content, service experience and affordable tariffs for everyone to live the Jio Digital Life. As part of its customer offers, Jio has revolutionised the Indian telecom landscape by making voice calls for Jio customers free, across India, to any network, and always. Jio makes India the highest quality, most affordable data market in the world so that every Indian can do Datagiri.
About Ocean Connect Maldives Pvt Ltd
Ocean Connect Maldives Private Limited (OCM) is a new legal entity 100% owned by the Government of Maldives and established under Maldives Fund Management Corporation Limited (MFMC) as a subsidiary.
Ocean Connect Maldives (OCM) will be categorised as an ICT infrastructure company to invest in physical and digital infrastructure and promote inclusive digital networks and services to help address the digital divide and drive the next stage of Maldives’ growth.
Investing on IAX cable system will be the cornerstone for OCM’s “new digital economy of Maldives” that envisions to create a fully connected Maldives without barriers for rapid digital transformation.
