Dhiraagu, the national communications provider and largest service operator of the Republic of Maldives, has awarded Telecom Italia Sparkle - the wholesale global operator part of the Telecom Italia Group – one of its first international links via submarine cable.
The circuit will be routed on the recently inaugurated Maldives - Sri Lanka cable (a partnership between Dhiraagu and Sri Lanka Telecom) and then connected to the SMW4 cable system up to Palermo, Italy, the rapidly growing IP hub being selected by Middle East, Gulf and Asian Carriers willing to secure a privileged access to the Big Internet.
Dhiraagu CEO, Mr Ismail Waheed, said on this occasion “We are extremely delighted to have strengthened our good business relationship with Telecom Italia Sparkle. This will allow us to expand our worldwide connectivity, in a manner that will further improve our customer experiences, by taking advantage of the global reach and quality of service TIS has to offer";
Telecom Italia Sparkle CEO, Stefano Mazzitelli, added: “We are honoured to participate to such a memorable moment in telecommunications history of the Maldives and we are proud to have been identified by Dhiraagu as provider of choice for their connectivity needs which will certainly contribute to the socio-economic development of the Maldives”.
This agreement represents the dawn of a brand new relationships between Dhiraagu and Telecom Italia Sparkle where older satellite technology will be replaced by the Dhiraagu Submarine Cable Network - DSCN (being composed of the international cable system between Maldives and Sri Lanka and the inter-atoll domestic cable).
Telecom Italia Sparkle will make available to Dhiraagu its state of the art platform of network and services and this will contribute to Dhiraagu’s nationwide efforts to offer Maldivians, and worldwide visitors to the islands, services with higher quality and affordable prices.
About Telecom Italia Sparkle
Telecom Italia Sparkle SpA (Sparkle), a wholly owned subsidiary of Telecom Italia, was established on January 1st, 2003 with the objective of developing and consolidating the Italian Group’s international wholesale and retail business. It has 875 employees, both in Italy and abroad, and, in 2005, it reported 2.0 billion euros in revenues.
The headquarters are in Rome, network operation centers in Milan and Palermo, offices and subsidiaries in 20 countries worldwide. Sparkle is a full service provider, offering a complete range of solutions spanning voice services, IP, bandwidth and managed data services for fixed-line and mobile operators, ISPs and, in synergy with Telecom Italia, for multinational corporations.
According to most recent independent reports, Sparkle is ranked Europe’s number 1 player in terms of voice service revenues, and among the top 5 carriers worldwide in terms of total voice traffic. The company is a Tier-1 IP & data service provider in Europe and Latin America, and a major player in selected extra-European markets.
Sparkle means networks, technological platforms and a worldwide commercial presence, in order to provide the best cost, top performance services to the main players of the international telecommunications market.
The company runs a proprietary, advanced and global-reaching international network made up of three regional systems, deployed in Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and Latin America, in order to guarantee the availability of its own infrastructure in those areas where Sparkle is concentrating its commercial focus.
Media contact for more information
Mohamed Mirshan Hassan
Manager Marketing Communications and Public Relations
Phone: 3311336
