Dhiraagu

Dhiraagu
Private
48% owned by Maldivian Government, 52% owned by Cable & Wireless Communications
Industry Telecommunications
Founded October 1, 1988 - Joint venture of Maldivian Government and Cable & Wireless Communications
Headquarters Malé, Maldives (head office)
Key people
 Mr Ismail Rasheed - CEO/MD
Products Fixed Telephony
Fixed Broadband
Mobile Telephony
Mobile Broadband
Revenue "N/A"
Number of employees
 630+ full time
Website www.dhiraagu.com.mv

Dhiraagu (Dhivehi: ދިރާގު) is the first Maldivian telecommunications company, which was established in 1988.

The name "Dhiraagu" is an acronym for Dhivehi Raajjeygé Gulhun (Dhivehi: ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ގުޅުން)-Literally: Connection of Maldives.

Dhiraagu maintains one of the world's longest microwave links over water. This 65 km link across the equator connects Fuvahmulah and Gaafu Dhaalu - and therefore Gaafu Alifu atoll.

History

Dhiraagu front office, circa 1990. To left is the flag of Cable & Wireless Communications and to right is Flag of the Maldives.

Though Dhiraagu is the first Maldivian telecommunications company, it's not the first to start the service. Telecommunication service in the Maldives was officially started on December 23, 1943, by the Maldivian government. On May 17, 1977 Cable and Wireless started its operations as the telecom provider. Later, in 1988, Cable and Wireless and the government of the Maldives formed a joint venture company, Dhiraagu, making it the first ever Maldivian telecommunication company. The Maldivian government holds 48% share of the company and 52% is owned by Cable & Wireless


Significant events

Tier 2 Network


On September 18, 2005 Dhiraagu signed an agreement with Sri Lanka Telecom for an Optical Submarine Cable System. Under the agreement, both companies will invest in maintaining the cable. The actual work of laying the 837 km cable was done by NEC of Japan, under a contract valued at US$ 22.7 Million.[1] On November 14, 2006 the cable was connected to a landing site at Hulhumale', Maldives.[2] This Tier 2 network has an initial transmission capacity of 3 Giga bit per second (Gbit/s), which is capable of being increased to up to 160 Gbit/s. The system adopts WDM, or Wavelength Division Multiplexing. This is the second submarine cable connecting Maldives to the world.[3]

Original logo. This logo was replaced by their current logo on June 23, 2005.

Dhiraagu stated that this cable will help the company to reduce the cost of providing Telephone and Internet services, thus reducing prices. Also the cable system will help to improve quality of services.

Criticism

Dhiraagu has long been seen to Monopolise the telecoms market in the Maldives, a situation it is accused of having created and maintained. Until 2004 the Telecommunications Authority of Maldives had refrained from issuing additional licenses to companies preventing any competition to all of the telecom services provided by Dhiraagu. This status quo may have been deliberately retained by the Maldivian government in an effort to profit from Dhiraagu's revenues, as it partly owns the company.

Dhiraagu was also heavily criticized for what the public describes as absurdly high prices during the 1980s and 1990s. Foreseeing competition and regular criticism from the public, the company had dramatically lowered the service prices.

Competition

Raajjé Online (ROL), established in 2003, became Dhiraagu's first competitor. ROL is the second Internet Service Provider.

In 2005, Wataniya Telecom International - a Qatar telecom company (now owned by Ooredoo Group; also merged into the Ooredoo Group) - was awarded the license to operate as the second mobile phone operator. They formed Ooredoo Maldives (formerly Wataniya Telecom Maldives) and started operation on August 1, 2005.

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/28/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.