Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (Jio) will land the next-generation multi-terabit India-Asia-Xpress (IAX) undersea cable system in Hulhumale, Maldives, the company announced on Monday.
The project will land in the island nation Maldives in collaboration with Ocean Connect Maldives. The IAX system will connect Hulhumale’ directly with the world’s major internet hubs in India and Singapore.
The IAX system originates in Mumbai in the west and connects directly to Singapore, including additional landings in India, Malaysia, and Thailand. The India Europe-Xpress (IEX) system connects Mumbai to Milan, landing in Savona, Italy. It includes additional landings in the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean.
To be ready by 2023
IAX is expected to be ready for service by end-2023, while IEX will be ready for service in mid-2024, the company said. IEX and IAX will link India, Europe to Southeast Asia, and now the Maldives.
“These high capacities and high-speed systems will provide more than 200Tb/s of capacity at speeds of 100Gb/s, stretching over 16,000 km . 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,” it said.
Talking about the launch of Maldives’ first international cable, the Minister of Economic Development, Uz Fayyaz Ismail, 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 the Maldives to the world’s content hubs but will also support the explosive growth in data demand expected from the new initiatives being launched by Maldives,” said Mathew Oommen, President, Reliance Jio.
“Jio is very pleased to be working with the government of the Maldives to help realise this ambition by providing high-quality, terabit capacity supporting Web 3.0-capable internet services,” Oommen added.
Published on
February 21, 2022
