The Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION) Submarine Optical Fibre Cable System was officially inaugurated yesterday by the Prime Minister, Dr Navinchandra Ramgoolam, GCSK, FRCP, at the Cable Landing Station located at the Mauritius Telecom Terre Rouge Exchange, in the presence of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mauritius Telecom, Mr Appalsamy Thomas, and the Deputy Chief Executive, Mr Jean-François Thomas.
The LION Project is a joint initiative of Mauritius Telecom, France Télécom and Orange Madagascar. It is the second submarine cable landing in Mauritius, the first one being the South Africa Far East (SAFE) located at Baie Jacotet. The LION project provides Mauritius with a second gateway and aims at eliminating the ‘single point of failure’ of having only one landing station, thereby enhancing the security, resiliency and reliability of international connectivity for Mauritius. It also provides additional capacity to connect to the world.
In his inaugural speech, the Prime Minister welcomed yet another step to consolidate and expand connectivity with the rest of the world and reinforce our position in the field of data collection and recovery base. He expressed his commitment to the ambition of breaching the digital divide and reach parity with the best global ICT players in the world.
Dr Ramgoolam recalled the development and emergence of ICT as one of the pillars of economy and listed the initiatives and efforts undertaken by the government in its vision to transform Mauritius into a cyberisland where knowledge and technology play a crucial role in the economy. The Prime Minister also reiterated his commitment for an inclusive society where each and everyone have access to internet services and are able to use them. He added that by 2013 some 20 000 vulnerable families would be trained in that field.
For his part, Mr Appalsamy Thomas highlighted the substantial investments of Mauritius Telecom to increase the capacity, reliability and resilience of the international connectivity. Apart from SAFE and LION, Mauritius Telecom also has stakes in the Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy) with an investment of US$ 8 million as well as the Europe – India Gateway (EIG) submarine optical fibre cable projects with investments to the tune of US$ 5 million. The systems are scheduled to become operational during the second semester of 2010. Those investments will contribute to create additional capacity that will be used to meet the demands of the IT Enabled Services (ITES) for huge volume of international bandwidth. It is to be noted that the requirements of the ITES sector for international bandwidth have jumped from 50 Mega bits per second (Mbps) in 2005 to 220 Mbps in 2009 and is expected to reach more than 400 Mbps in 2012.
The first phase of the LION project, launched in January 2008, consists of some 1070 km of cables linking Mauritius, Madagascar and Reunion island. It has cost some € 37 million, of which Mauritius Telecom contributed € 8 million. It has a designed total bandwidth capacity of 1.28 trillion bits per second of which only bandwidth capacity of 20 Giga bits per second will be used for a start. The second phase of the project, which was initiated in February this year, will see the cable extended to Mombasa in Kenya with landings in Comoros Archipelago (Mayotte) and Seychelles. LION is already connected to SAFE and will be connected to other major cable systems such as EASSy and The East African Marine System (TEAMS). The second phase of LION is estimated to cost € 54 million.
The LION Project is a joint initiative of Mauritius Telecom, France Télécom and Orange Madagascar. It is the second submarine cable landing in Mauritius, the first one being the South Africa Far East (SAFE) located at Baie Jacotet. The LION project provides Mauritius with a second gateway and aims at eliminating the ‘single point of failure’ of having only one landing station, thereby enhancing the security, resiliency and reliability of international connectivity for Mauritius. It also provides additional capacity to connect to the world.
In his inaugural speech, the Prime Minister welcomed yet another step to consolidate and expand connectivity with the rest of the world and reinforce our position in the field of data collection and recovery base. He expressed his commitment to the ambition of breaching the digital divide and reach parity with the best global ICT players in the world.
Dr Ramgoolam recalled the development and emergence of ICT as one of the pillars of economy and listed the initiatives and efforts undertaken by the government in its vision to transform Mauritius into a cyberisland where knowledge and technology play a crucial role in the economy. The Prime Minister also reiterated his commitment for an inclusive society where each and everyone have access to internet services and are able to use them. He added that by 2013 some 20 000 vulnerable families would be trained in that field.
For his part, Mr Appalsamy Thomas highlighted the substantial investments of Mauritius Telecom to increase the capacity, reliability and resilience of the international connectivity. Apart from SAFE and LION, Mauritius Telecom also has stakes in the Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy) with an investment of US$ 8 million as well as the Europe – India Gateway (EIG) submarine optical fibre cable projects with investments to the tune of US$ 5 million. The systems are scheduled to become operational during the second semester of 2010. Those investments will contribute to create additional capacity that will be used to meet the demands of the IT Enabled Services (ITES) for huge volume of international bandwidth. It is to be noted that the requirements of the ITES sector for international bandwidth have jumped from 50 Mega bits per second (Mbps) in 2005 to 220 Mbps in 2009 and is expected to reach more than 400 Mbps in 2012.
The first phase of the LION project, launched in January 2008, consists of some 1070 km of cables linking Mauritius, Madagascar and Reunion island. It has cost some € 37 million, of which Mauritius Telecom contributed € 8 million. It has a designed total bandwidth capacity of 1.28 trillion bits per second of which only bandwidth capacity of 20 Giga bits per second will be used for a start. The second phase of the project, which was initiated in February this year, will see the cable extended to Mombasa in Kenya with landings in Comoros Archipelago (Mayotte) and Seychelles. LION is already connected to SAFE and will be connected to other major cable systems such as EASSy and The East African Marine System (TEAMS). The second phase of LION is estimated to cost € 54 million.
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