The first phase of the Indian Ocean Exchange (IOX) submarine cable system, connecting Mauritius and Rodrigues Islands to South Africa and India, has been officially launched in Port Louis.
The project, which will position Mauritius as a technology hub, is the third submarine cable landing in Mauritius. It has been conceived as an open access cable system to offer opportunities for licensed operators to become providers of high bandwidths on cutting-edge technologies, Minister of Technology, Communication and Innovation, Yogida Sawmynaden, noted during the launch ceremony.
The first phase of the project began with an underwater marine survey for the IOX cable system. A specially designed vessel is utilized in the process of assessing the seabed conditions, engineering the route, cable design, and cable installation program.
The vessel will start its survey from Mauritius, towards Rodrigues Island and then survey the complete route to South Africa as a first step in completing the IOX cable system.
The 8 890 km cable system, being built by Alcatel Submarine Networks, will provide customers and partners with a new open access alternative path for connecting Africa, Asia and onwards to Europe and the USA.
Once completed, the IOX cable system will be the first open access system connecting Mauritius and Rodrigues to East London in South Africa and Pondicherry in India.
The IOX cable system will deliver an ultimate design capacity of over 54 terabits per second and it is scheduled to go live in 2019.