Incumbent Maldives telco Dhiraagu said on Wednesday it has extended its high-speed fibre broadband network to all inhabited islands in the Maldives in a project that took five years to complete.
At a press conference announcing the milestone, Dhiraagu CEO and MD Ismail Rasheed noted that “only a few developed countries have successfully extended 100% fibre broadband coverage to their entire population.”
While the Maldives is a small country with less than 578,000 people, it’s also a geographically challenging archipelago of close to 1,200 islands across 22 atolls. Of that, around 200 islands are inhabited. All of those islands now have access to fibre broadband services, Ismail said.
Ismail also said the rollout enhances the Maldives’ digital backbone and will fuel the growth of digital services across the country, as well as enable greater digital inclusion in island communities by expanding broadband access and lowering the cost of internet services.
Ismail credited the government, atoll councils, island councils and partners for their cooperation in rolling out the fibre broadband network, as well as the work of Dhiraagu staff.
As for the international connectivity backing that network, the islands of the Maldives archipelago are connected by several inter-island subsea cable systems, but currently its only international subsea link is to Sri Lanka via the Maldives Sri Lanka Cable (MSC), which has been in operation since 2021.
That said, the Maldives has established a landing point for the India-Asia-Xpress (IAX) subsea cable connecting Mumbai with Singapore, which will interconnect with the India-Europe-Xpress (IEX) subsea cable system connecting Mumbai with Milan, Italy, that is scheduled to be ready for service sometime in 2025.
Dhiraagu inaugurated the official landing of the SEA-ME-WE 6 subsea cable in the Maldives in August 2024. SEA-ME-WE 6 is scheduled to be ready for service in early 2026. It will also be the first international subsea cable in which a Maldives telco owns a direct stake.