please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . may 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message dhiraagu type 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 mal 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 is the first maldivian telecommunications company which was established in 1988 . the name dhiraagu is an acronym for dhivehi raajjeyg gulhun dhivehi 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 . contents 1 history 1.1 significant events 2 tier 2 network 3 criticism 4 competition 5 references 6 external links history edit 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 edit 1988 dhiraagu was officially established on october 1 1988 1989 major upgrade of copper network in male 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 june 23 2005 dhiraagu rebranded and introduced a new logo . 2006 dhiraagu introduces adsl services to maldives 2006 in feb 2006 dhiraagu initiated world record dive helped to put maldives onto guinness world record book 2006 dhiraagu connects a submarine cable with sri lanka 2006 dhiraagu establishes domestic fiber optic submarine cable 2010 dhiraagu introduces 3g hspa services to maldives 2013 dhiraagu introduces 4g lte services to maldives 2014 dhiraagu introduces vdsl services to maldives under the brand name ultrafast broadband 2015 dhiraagu introduces streaming tv services to maldives under the brand name dhiraagutv 2015 dhiraagu introduces ftth services to maldives under the brand name dhiraagufiber broadband 2015 dhiraagu commercially launched lte advanced for the first time in maldives and the first in south asia tier 2 network edit 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 edit 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 edit raajj 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 edit nec wins contract for first optical submarine cable system linking maldives to sri lanka . nec . dhiraagu submarine cable connected to maldives . haveeru . nec wins contract for first optical submarine cable system linking maldives to sri lanka . nec . external links edit http www.dhiraagu.com.mv official dhiraagu website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title dhiraagu & oldid 741628968 categories telecommunications companies of the maldivesinternet service providers of the maldiveshidden categories articles needing additional references from may 2016all articles needing additional referencespages using infobox company with unsupported parametersarticles containing dhivehi 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