Minister of Economic Development Fayyaz Ismail states the Maldives will establish itself as a key communication hub in South Asia with the India-Asia-Express (IAX) system. He made the remarks at a special ceremony to sign the agreement to land the IAX undersea cable system in the Maldives.
As part of the agreement, India-based Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited will land the next generation in a multi-terabit IAX undersea cable system in Hulhumale'.
At the ceremony, Minister Fayyaz said the agreement is the first stride towards enhancing the country's connectivity infrastructure and opening vast opportunities for Maldivians through providing secure, affordable, and high-quality service. The minister said it will also accelerate social development through high-speed internet access throughout the Maldives allowing the country to attain equitable development.
Also at the ceremony, President of Jio Mathew Oomen said the global economy is driven by low-latency broadband, connecting people, businesses, content, and services. He said IAX will support the explosive growth in data demand expected from the new initiatives being launched by the Government of the Maldives.
The high capacity and high-speed IAX system will connect Hulhumale' directly with the world's major internet hubs in India and Singapore. Jio stated the system will provide more than 200Tbps of capacity at speeds of 100Gbps over 16,000km. Jio is India's largest 4G and mobile broadband digital service provider.