MAP > Internet Providers in Mauritius

In recent years, Mauritius has been developing a smart city concept. Mauritius has for long been the pioneer in telecom sector. It became the first to market in greater Africa region to be able to launch the mobile telecom networks, in the year 1989, being first to offer the 3G service, in the year 2004, and it became among the first to be able to launch the IPTV services in the year 2006.

The LTE and the fiber broadband services have been available nationally while the government has also been able to support the building of the national Wi-Fi network, with some additional funds set aside in the 2017-2018 budget. Incumbent telco, the Mauritius Telecom, has privatized as well as benefits from scale and the technical prowess of the Orange Group that can hold 40% in the operator. All the sectors of the market have been open to competition.

This country has become a hub for the submarine cables offering international connectivity, with the first stage of laying IOX Cable underway and it has been expected to be ready for the service in the year 2019. LION3 cable offers the additional capacity and has been helping to make Mauritius, being the regional hub for the cable connectivity.

Mauritius has successfully been pursuing the policy to make the telecommunications as the pillar of the economic growth, and to have fully digital based systems. Mobile market with the penetration rate at 143 percent by late 2018 has been migrating from the voice as well as the data services. There are three networks operators, Mauritius Telecom, and this is in partnership with the Orange Group, the Emtel, being operated by Currimjee Jeewanje Group as well as the Bharti enterprises, and the Mahanagar, which is the subsidiary of the MTNL that also is island second fixed-line operator making use of the CDMA2000 technology.

The operators have increased the reach of the LTE infrastructure to be able to support the growing demand for mobile data services. In the broadband sector, there has been continued progress in growing FttP and the FttC rollouts. Mauritius Telecom has been able to invest over 5 Billion Rs, to fast track the national FttP deployment.

Some of the key developments in the report include:

- MAS cable lands at the Rodrigues.
- The IOX cable survey gets be underway.
- The government makes progress with the Wi-Fi Mauritius program.