Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION) is a

submarine communications cable A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the seabed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The first submarine communications cables were laid beginning in the 1850s and car ...

network that connects

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

Réunion Réunion (; ; ; known as before 1848) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France. Part of the Mascarene Islands, it is located approximately east of the isl ...

, and

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

History

The construction of a new submarine cable to connect the Southeast African islands was announced in March 2008. The project was financed by a consortium made up of Orange Madagascar,

Mauritius Telecom Mauritius Telecom (MT) is a telecommunications company in Mauritius, a small republic in the Indian Ocean. The company had about 392,000 fixed line customers, 969,000 mobile customers, 404,000 fibre-ready homes, 178,000 IPTV customers, and 255,000 ...

and France Telecom S.A. Overall, the LION project cost an estimated 37 million dollars. The Mauritius Telecom group has reportedly invested 10.8 million in the project. The LION I network was inaugurated in March 2010. This cable digitized the region, and paved the way for the development of an outsourcing economy (call centers). LION II, linking Madagascar, Mayotte and Kenya, was launched in April 2012. In July 2017, Orange announced the construction of FLY-LION III, a 400 km extension of LION I and II. The capacity of this new cable should be 4 terabits/s. In July 2018, the website ''Cable.com'' ranked Madagascar 22nd in the list of countries with the fastest connections. On 5–6 October 2018, the LION II cable broke, leading to a severe decrease of digital access in Mayotte the following days. While Emtel had to play the diplomacy with its users, Mauritius Telecom, thanks to its global participation in the LION consortium, was able to re-route on other LION cables for balance-loading.

Description

The LION is 1,000 kilometres long and delivers up to 1.28 terabits per second. To reach Europe and other destinations, the LION cable is linked to the SAFE cable and will be connected to the

EASSy The Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) is an undersea fibre optic cable system connecting countries in Eastern Africa to the rest of the world. EASSy runs from Mtunzini in South Africa to Port Sudan in Sudan, with landing points in ...

and the East African Marine System (TEAMs) cable when they are operational. It has

cable landing point A cable landing point is the location where a Submarine cable, submarine or other underwater cable makes landfall. The term is most often used for the landfall points of submarine communications cable, submarine telecommunications cables and subm ...

s at:LION
Greg's Cable Map *

Toamasina Toamasina (), meaning "like salt" or "salty", unofficially and in French language, French Tamatave or in the past as Port aux prunes, is the capital of the Atsinanana region on the east coast of Madagascar on the Indian Ocean. The city is the chief ...

, Toamasina Province,

Atsinanana Region Atsinanana is a coastal Regions of Madagascar, region in eastern Madagascar. It borders Analanjirofo region in the north, Alaotra-Mangoro in the west, Vakinankaratra and Amoron'i Mania in the southwest, and Vatovavy in the south. The region contai ...

, Madagascar * Sainte Marie, Saint-Denis Arrondissement, Réunion * Terre Rouge,

Pamplemousses District Pamplemousses () is a districts of Mauritius, district of Mauritius, located in the northwest of the island, and is one of the most densely populated parts of the island. The name of the district comes from the French word for grapefruits. The di ...

, Mauritius The LION II submarine cable network (2700 km), which required a 57 million euro investment, connects the LION I network to Mayotte and Mombasa, Kenya. The LION II network enables a shorter cable distance to the Middle East and Europe, thus lowering latency between servers.

References

External links

LION optical fiber submarine cable system
* https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1038143/000130817909000044/chap8p13302.jpg {{Submarine communications cables in the Indian Ocean Submarine communications cables in the Indian Ocean France–Madagascar relations France–Mauritius relations 2009 establishments in Madagascar 2009 establishments in Mauritius 2009 establishments in Réunion