By Yasine Mohabuth
Mauritius set-up the first phase of the Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION,) an underwater fibre optics cable valued to € 37 million Euros financed by Orange Madagascar, Mauritius Telecom and France Telecom and will link three islands of the Indian Ocean - Madagascar, Mauritius and Reunion - to the rest of the world.

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 and provides additional capacity to connect to the world.

It is some 1,070kms in length and consists of two fibre pairs and has a total bandwidth capacity of 1.28 Tera bits per second, that is 1.28 trillion bits per second.
Mauritius Telecom has invested € 8 million in the first phase of the project, which has an estimated total cost of € 37 million.

The second phase of the LION project was initiated in February this year and will see cable extended to Mombasa in Kenya with landings in Comoros Archipelago (Mayotte) and Seychelles. LION is already connected to SAFE South Africa Far East, the second submarine cable landing in Mauritius, and will be interconnected to other major cable systems such as EASSy and The East African Marine System (TEAMS).

The projected EASSy cable, a 10 000 km long cable which will connect together South Africa, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Seychelles, Comoros, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Sudan, Kenya, Djibouti, Eritrea and Mauritius.

They including SEACOM, a 17,000 km long cable that will connected Marseilles in France; the East African Marine System (TEAMS), the 4,500 km long cable that will connect to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates; and Eassy, the 10,000 km long cable that will connect South Africa, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Seychelles, Comoros, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Sudan, Kenya, Mauritius, Djibouti and Eritrea.

The connection of Mauritius to the LION submarine cable system will enhance connectivity according to Mauritius Prime Minister Dr Navinchandra Ramgoolam at the launch.

“The introduction of this first network of optical cable allowed the development of ICT sector which today contributes no less than 6% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product, Ramgoolam told.

“Information and communication technology is “absolutely crucial” for developing key sectors like BPO, call centres, software and hardware development, website hosting and IT consulting. Before the arrival of the SAFE cable network, he said, the prices of connectivity were exorbitant.

“We would not have been able to attract the 310 global players and employ 12,000 professionals in five years if we were not connected to the SAFE network.”