Dhiraagu

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 23 December 1943, provided by the Maldivian government. On 17 May 1977 Cable & 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 (55% owned by the Government of Maldives and 45% by Cable and Wireless), making it the first ever Maldivian telecommunications company. Later it became a public company and currently the Maldivian government holds a 41.8% share in the company, while 52% is owned by Batelco and 6.2% is owned by the general public.

Significant events

1988 – Dhiraagu was officially established on 1 October 1988.

1989 – Major upgrade of copper network in the capital.

1991 – Paging service introduced.

1996 – Dial-up internet service was introduced to Maldives for the first time, under the brand name DhivehiNet.

1997 – Mobile phone service was introduced with Advanced Mobile Phone System Technologies.

1999 – Mobile phone service's platform changed to GSM.

2005 – On 23 June, Dhiraagu rebranded and introduced a new logo.

On 18 September 2005 Dhiraagu signed an agreement with SLTMobitel 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. On 14 November 2006 the cable was connected to a landing site at Hulhumale', Maldives. 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 wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM). This is the second submarine cable connecting Maldives to the world.

Criticism

Dhiraagu held a monopoly on the telecoms market in the Maldives from its creation until 2005, a situation it is accused of having created and maintained. Until 2004, the Telecommunications Authority of Maldives had refrained from issuing additional licences to other 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 criticised for what the public describes as absurdly high prices during the 1980s and 1990s. Foreseeing competition and regular criticism from the public, the company lowered service prices in the mid- to late-2000s.