Dhivehi Raajjeyge Gulhun (Dhiraagu), the Maldives’ incumbent telecoms operator, has announced the completion of its nationwide 3G mobile broadband rollout, three months ahead of the initial target date. The company’s 3G network now covers all inhabited islands, and Dhiraagu says it has connected the country from north to south via a fibre-optic submarine cable network. Commenting on the achievement, Dhiraagu’s CEO and MD Ismail Rasheed stated: ‘In a geographically dispersed nation, ensuring such coverage to all inhabited islands regardless of population size, does not come without challenges. However, having good internet access is important for someone living in a remote island as it is for someone living in the capital. Our focus is to expand our services to benefit all the people across the country.’
Earlier this month, Dhiraagu launched an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network using carrier aggregation (CA) technology in the 1800MHz and 2600MHz frequency bands. The new mobile broadband network offers down/uplink speeds of 300Mbps/50Mbps.