Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION) is a submarine communications cable network that connects

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

, Réunion, and

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

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 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 or other underwater cable makes landfall. The term is most often used for the landfall points of submarine telecommunications cables and submarine power cables. The landing will either be d ...

s at:LION
Greg's Cable Map *

Toamasina Toamasina (), meaning "like salt" or "salty", unofficially and in French Tamatave, is the capital of the Atsinanana region on the east coast of Madagascar on the Indian Ocean. The city is the chief seaport of the country, situated northeast of it ...

Toamasina Province The Toamasina Province is a former province of Madagascar with an area of 71,911 km². It had a population of 2,855,600 (2004). Its capital was Toamasina, the most important seaport of the country. The province was also known as Tamatave Provi ...

Atsinanana Region Atsinanana is a coastal 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 and Fitovinany in south. The region contains over 285k ...

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