Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio), India’s largest 4G and mobile broadband digital service provider, will land a multi-terabit India-Asia-Xpress (IAX) undersea cable system in Hulhumale, the Maldives, connecting the island nation directly to major internet hubs such as India and Singapore.

Jio will land the high-speed IAX undersea cable system project in Hulhumale in collaboration with the Maldives government-owned Ocean Connect Maldives (OCM).

The IAX system originates in Mumbai and connects directly to Singapore, with branches including additional landings in India, Malaysia, and Thailand. The IndiaEurope-Xpress (IEX) system connects Mumbai to Milan, landing in Savona, Italy, and includes additional landings in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean, the company said in a statement.

IAX is expected to be ready for service by the end-2023, while IEX will be ready for service in mid-2024.

These high capacities and high-speed systems will provide more than 200Tb/s of capacity at speeds of 100Gb/s, over 16,000 km.

IEX and IAX together will become some of the most important developments in telecommunications infrastructure in this decade, linking India, Europe to Southeast Asia, and now the Maldives.

Uz Fayyaz Ismail, minister of economic development in the Maldives, called this “the first stride towards enhancing our connectivity infrastructure and opening vast opportunities for our people through providing secure, affordable and high-quality services”.

“We also aim to diversify our economy and establish ourselves as a key communications hub in South Asia. Aside from economic development, this will accelerate social development through high-speed internet access throughout the Maldives allowing us to attain the equitable development we seek,” Ismail added.

Mathew Oommen, president, of Reliance Jio, emphasised how today’s global economy is driven by low-latency broadband, connecting people, businesses, content, and services.

“IAX will not only connect the Maldives to the world’s content hubs but will also support the explosive growth in data demand expected from new initiatives being launched by the government of the Maldives. Jio is very pleased to be working with the government of the Maldives to help realise this ambition by providing high-quality, terabit capacity supporting Web 3.0-capable internet services,” he added.