Telecommunications development in (any country) and its impacts on travel, tourism and hospitality industry of that country.

ICT Development in Maldives ICT development is driven mostly by the Maldives Telecommunications Policy* and the National IT Policy. The Telecommunications Policy 2001-2005 aimed to (1) reduce telecommunication charges in the country, (2) expand the telecommunication services and reduce the existing disparity in service provision between Male (the capital) and other islands, (3) make the role of the regulator more effective by passing a Telecommunication Act, (4) open the telecommunication sector to competition, and (5) the introduction of ICTs to enhance productivity and promote socioeconomic development.1 The Maldives Telecommunications Policy 2006-2010 was issued in 2006, which aims to expand the national telecom infrastructure to provide broadband services to all parts of the country without any discriminatory charges.2 The National IT Policy is a collaborative effort between UNDP Maldives and the National Centre for Information Technology of the Ministry of Transport and Communication. The project ran into delays due to the unavailability of local consultants to work on the project as well as the change in government structure in July 2005, which dissolved the former Ministry of Communication, Science and Technology and transferred the communications functions to the newly formed Ministry of Transport and Communication. 3 The Telecommunication Authority of Maldives* (TAM) is charged with the development and regulation of the telecommunications sector. The National Center for Information Technology* (NCIT) was formed as the agency responsible for the development and promotion of Information Technology in the Maldives. Both entities are under the Ministry of Transport and Communication.

http://www.maldiveisle.com/tourhistory2.htm The UNDP consultant who visited the Maldives decided that tourism development was impracticable in the Maldives. There might have been some truth considering the factors and the infrastructure at that time. There was no international airport, no telecommunication and no banking services. The mode of transport was very basic and time-consuming. Almost all goods from toothpicks to fruits need to be imported to the Maldives.

When tourism was introduced to the island nation, the telecommunication facilities were very poor. Messages were sent using Morse code and radio sets. Ham Station and some pilots sent messages to Colombo to make travel arrangements for tourists from Sri Lanka to the Maldives. Supply orders and other communications from local resorts such as Kurumba and Bandos were sent via Radio set to Crescent Tourist Agency. The CTA then delivered the message by a messenger to the recipient. When the first resort in Ari Atoll was developed in 1974, communication became a more difficult task. Walkie Talkies were used to send messages from Kuramathi to Male. It was hard to receive messages in a clear tone.

The British company, Cable and Wireless, established the telecommunication service in the Maldives in 1977. They established an important link from the capital to the remote, isolated islands. Cable and Wireless entered into a joint venture with the Maldivian government and began upgrading and development phases in 1980. During the same year the government of Singapore donated a step-by-step automatic exchange of 10,000 telephones which made communication much easier. This new system commenced on 20th September 1980. The telecommunication sector today keeps pace with new developments in the world and provides all modern facilities such as electronic mail and other e- related services. All tourist resorts, hotels and safari vessels are now equipped with modern communication facilities. The remote islands are no longer isolated from the rest of the world, having instant access from islands to the World Wide Web round the clock.

A telephone used in 1970s

Transportation|Back to top| Apart from communication, transport was a major obstacle to the tourism industry in its early years. At a time when the Maldives was hardly known to the world, it was practically inaccessible for tourists who wished to travel to the Maldives. Air transport is the major and prime method to reach the Maldives from Western Europe and other countries. Flights were time-consuming and cumbersome. There were no direct flights from the Maldives to their destination or vice versa. As a result they had to travel through Colombo. The first air link was established between Sri Lanka and the Maldives in 1966, a year after the Maldives declared independence. The courier was an Air Ceylon Avro aircraft, which had a capacity of 44 passengers. Sri Lankan Air Force also operated charter flights from Colombo to Male which had a capacity of 28 passengers. On 1st October 1974 Air Maldives was established a national air courier. On September 19 an agreement was signed with the Sri Lankan Air Force to operate charter flights from Colombo to the Maldives. A new era of air transport began when the airport was upgraded to an international level in 1981. The first flight to land at the new airport was a German charter flight Condor, DC10. Singapore Airlines commenced operations on 26th March 1984 with schedule flights and this established good links to the rest of the world. The national airline of Sri Lanka alsoplayed a major role in bringing tourists from across Eastern and Western Europe to the Maldives. During 1984, 95,264 tourists travelled to the Maldives on schedule flights while 141,818 tourists arrived in 1991. In 1985, the number of tourists who arrived on charter flights were numbered at 33,617 rising to 82,651 in 1991.

After 21 years of international air services in the Maldives, many international airlines connect to the Maldives from all over the world. The government has also signed many air service agreements with a number of countries, which has led to an increase in reliable air links. The Maldives today is an easy accessed destination from all over the world with daily charter and schedule flights. However, landing at the airport does not mean easy access to the final destination. Since all the tourist resorts are isolated from the airport by sea, land transport is not practicable. Easy domestic

A Yacht dhoni - a very popular vessel for sea transport

transport is vital for a holidaymaker who has travelled from far-away destinations. During the early years of tourism a modified fishing vessel named Yacht Dhoni was used to transfer tourists from island to island. Today there is another popular modification of the local dhoni called Sathari Dhoni, which carries passengers and cargo to the resort islands.

The tourism industry has invested a huge sum of money on local transport. The introduction of high speed launches and ferries led to the reduction of travel time and has made sea transport more enjoyable and easy. It has also enabled to expand tourism beyond the central one to faraway atolls without much difficulty. But the milestone in local tourist transfer was the introduction of air service from the airport to the resort islands. On 16th December 1989 Hummingbird Helicopters (a foreign investment) introduced air transfer using helicopters, making the distant resorts much closer to the Sea plane - a reliable aircraft central zone. Later another company named Seagull Airways began air services along with Hummingbird. During 1994 Maldivian Air Taxi, a foreign company, introduced seaplanes to the Maldives. Seaplanes have proved to be an ideal mode of transport for transfering tourists to remote resort islands. The door to the world - an airport at Hulhule Island|Back to top| From the sky above, the birds eye view would suggest that the Male International Airport is an aircraft carrier floating in the azure blue sea. That is just how it appears but the reality is that it is constructed on one of the low-lying islands of the island nation. The international airport constructed on Hulhule Island is the main entry to and from the rest of the world. There was already a small runway constructed by the British when the Maldivians started constructing the runway in Hulhule. The metal plate runway measured 75 x 3000 feet. The patriotic Maldivians started construction of the runway on Friday, 1st May 1964. The runway ran from one end of the island to the other and was 150 feet wider. The work of publicspirited Maldivians was completed on 1966. An Avro (4R-ACJ) of Air Ceylon was the first aircraft to land at this new airport. Maldivians cheered and celebrated The metal plate runway constructed by Bristish when an Air Ceylon plane landed at 15:50 hrs on 12th April 1966 and on the same day the former Prime Minister His Excellency Mr Ibrahim Nasir declared the airport open.

Projects to upgrade and to increase the size of the runway continued. The island of Gaadhoo, which was in the lagoon of Hulhule, was made part of Hulhule by reclaiming the lagoon between the two islands. An area measuring 3000 x 150 was reclaimed in the lagoon to connect these two islands. To dedicate the hole island solely as an airport, the government decided to shift the people of Hulhule to the capital Male and the task was completed on 31st December 1977.

Aircylone on Hulhule runway

A basic runway, hardly suitable for small planes, was in use when the first tourists arrived in 1972. As the number of arrivals started increasing the government realized the importance of having an international airport to serve the tourist industry. Under the leadership of His Excellency Mr Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom the small airport was reconstructed to an internationally recognised

standard. Mr Gayyoom declared the airport open with a new runway and associated facilities on 11th November 1981. The new runway measures 9,315 x 148 with a service terminal, which can cater for 350 passengers an hour. Other facilities include a control tower, a refilling service for planes and reliable communication facilities. The first aircraft to land at Male International Airport was a Condor DC 10 wide body aircraft on a direct flight from Europe. This charter flight landed in the Maldives on 31st October 1981. As the inflow of tourists increased immensely, the airport seemed no longer sufficient to cater for arrival and departure passengers. Therefore, the government initiated a new project in 1990 amounting to US$ 34.5 million. On 7th September 1994 a project for a new terminal, which can cater for 1,000 passengers in an hour and costing an estimated US$ 11 million, began. During the laying of the foundation stone Mr Gayyoom addressed the nation and stressed that it was aimed to provide a good standard of service to tourists. These facilities came into service in May1996.
Male' Interbational airport - Re-developed on several occasions

AIRLINE OPERATIONS - scheduled flights

|Back to top|

1.* AEROFLOT 4th August 1994 2. AIR MALDIVES LTD 10th November 1994 - 01st March 2000 3. AIR UKRAINE 27th September 1994 - 06th January 1995 4. AOM MINERVE SA 19th December 1994 - 27th March 1997 5. AUSTRIAN AIRLINES 2nd November 1995 - 01st May 2000 6.* BALKAN BULGARIAN AIRLINES 18th June 1992 7.* CONDOR 31st October 1981 (Commenced schedule operation from 04th November 1993) 8.* EMIRATES 27th May 1987 9.* EUROFLY SPA 21st December 1998 10. EVA AIR 31st July 1992 (Commenced schedule operations from 26th March 1994 - 01st May 1996) 11.* EXPO AVIATION (Cargo only) 10th August 1997 12.* INDIAN AIRLINES 21st February 1976 13.* LAUDA AIR 16th November 1987 (Operated scheduled flights from 24th December 1996 21st April 1998, 21st December 1998 - 05th April 1999 and re-started on 02nd May 2000) 14.* LTU November 1981 (Commenced schedule operations from 01st June 1998) 15.* MALAYSIA AIRLINES 1st June 1996 16.* MARTIN AIR HOLLAND 17th November 1999 17. PAKISTAN INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES 6th May 1987 - 01st October 1999 18. ROYAL NEPAL AIRLINES 10th October 1987 - 01st May 1988 19.* SINGAPORE AIRLINES 28th March 1984 20.* SKY CABS (Cargo only) 1st September 1993 21.* SRILANKAN AIRLINES 10th September 1979 22. TAROM - ROMANIAN AIRLINES 26th October 1992 - 07th February 1995 23. UZBEKISTAN AIRWAYS 27th July 1995 - 13th November 1997 24. ZAS AIRLINE OF EGYPT 30th June 1992 - 13th January 1995
*currently operating Source: Department of Civil Aviation

Singapore Airlines - operates regular schedule flights

AIRLINE OPERATIONS - charter flights |Back to top| 1. AIR 2000 LTD 20th December 1992 - 25th October 1993 and 08th November 1999 - 30th April 2000 2. AIR CHARTER 15th December 1997 - 29th April 1999 3. AIR EUROPA 05th May 1997 - 08th December 1997 4.* AIR EUROPE SPA 24th October 1998 5. AIR HOLLAND 08th October 1996 - 03rd November 1999 6. AIR LUXOR 29th July 1999 - 31st October 1999 7. AIR TOURS INTERNATIONAL 04th November 1996 - 28th April 1997, 03rd November 1997 27th April 1998, 02nd November 1998 - 26th April 1999 and 08th November 1999 - 01st May 2000 8. AIR UKRAINE 24th September 1994 - 06th January 1995 9. ALITALIA 07th December 1981 - 01st May 1995 10.* BALAIR CTA 1st December 1981 11. BRITANNIA AIRWAYS 06th November 1995 - 27th April 1998 12. BRITANNIA AIRWAYS SWEDEN 25th October 1998 - 16th April 1999 13. CALEDONIAN AIRWAYS 09th November 1993 - 26th April 1999 14.* CITY BIRD 28th April 2000 15. CORSE AIR INTERNATIONAL (CORSAIR)16th December 1999 - 27th April 2000 16. FINNAIR 20th January 1992 - 19th April 1995 17.* LAUDA AIR ITALY 20th December 1997 18.* MONARCH AIRLINES 23rd December 1985 19. NORDIC EUROPEAN AIR 06th November 1996 - 17th February 1998
*currently operating Source: Department of Civil Aviation

http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/cs/maldives/index.html The Republic of the Maldives, a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), consists of some 1'200 widely dispersed islands that are spread over 820 kilometers from North to South. Given the country's unique geographical characteristics, it is a noteworthy that the country achieved universal access in 1999. By then the partially private incumbent, Dhiraagu, was able to provide telephone service to all inhabited islands. Mobile cellular subscribers surpassed fixed telephone lines in 2002 and Dhiraagu is focusing investments on the rapidly growing mobile segment, including plans to launch GPRS. Since much time is spent on boats, mobile services are more useful and mobile coverage is widely available in sea waters. Statistics also show that a growing number of

mobile users access data services over their mobiles phones. Thus the development of mobile data networks appears to be a promising solution for enhancing Internet access. Liberalization in the telecommunication sector has been slow in the Maldives and only the Internet market has been opened to a second Internet Service Provider. The country, which is classified as a Least Developed Country (LDC), does not have a telecommunication law or a separate regulatory agency. There are, however, a number of ongoing international development projects in this area, including an e-government project by the Asian Development Bank. Another pressing need in the Maldives is in the areas of human resources. While primary and secondary school enrolment are high, less than one percent of the population has a tertiary degree A mission to the Maldives was carried out from 28 May to 3 June 2003, involving Michael Minges and Vanessa Gray. The mission and interviews were coordinated with the Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhiraagu Dhiraagu is the first Maldivian telecommunications company, which was established in 1988. The company remains the nation's largest telecom service provider and No.1 brand. It was the only company licensed to provide internet and GSM services until 2004 and 2005 respectively and continues to be the sole landline operator. Major services provided by the company includes landline telephony, Internet (including dial-up access and broadband, satellite and ADSL services), and 3.5G. Dhiraagu is also the only total communication solution provider in the Maldives and the only mobile operator with 100% coverage in all inhabited islands and resorts. Despite competition on both mobile and internet, Dhiraagu remains to be the leading telecom service provider with 80% market share and the preferred brand for over 300,000 people. 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.[1]

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 (C&W) 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 C&W.
File:Dhiraagu front office.jpg Dhiraagu front office, in 2005.

Dhiraagu used blue as its corporate colour since it began operation in 1988. After 17 years, to change the corporate identity in order to face the competition, on June 23, 2005,

Dhiraagu changed both its logo and colour. The corporate colour has been changed from blue to red.

February 1967 - Maldives joins International Telecommunications. 1988 Dhiraagu was officially established on October 1, 1988 1989 Major upgrade of cable network in Mal 1991 Paging service introduced 1996 Internet service was introduced to Maldives, for the first time, as a product of Dhiraagu. It was formerly called Netlink and later changed to DhivehiNet 1997 Mobile phone service was introduced under the brand label DhiMobile. Initially this service was provided over Advanced Mobile Phone System. (AMPS) (also known as analogue mobile phon system) 1999 Mobile phone service's platform changed to GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) 2005 On June 23, 2005, Dhiraagu rebranded and introduced a new logo. 2006 - In Feb 2006 Dhiraagu initiated world record dive helped to put Maldives onto Guinness world record book 2006 - Dhiraagu connects Maldives to the rest of the world via submarine cable 2006 - Dhiraagu establishes domestic fiber optic submarine cable 2010 - Dhiraagu introduces 3.5G services to Maldives

[edit] Tier 2 Network

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.[2] On November 14, 2006 the cable was connected to a landing site at Hulhumale', Maldives.[3] 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.[4]

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 communication and internet services, thus reducing prices. Also the cable system will help to improve quality of services. Dhiraagu has long been seen to dominate the telecom 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 1980s and 1990s. Foreseeing competition and regular criticism from the public, the company had dramatically lowered the service prices.

Raajj Online (ROL), established in 2003, became Dhiraagu's first competitor. ROL is the second Internet Service Provider. In 2005, Wataniya Telecom International - a Kuwaiti telecom company - was awarded the license to operate as the second mobile phone operator. They formed Wataniya Telecom Maldives and started operation on August 1, 2005.

http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/cs/maldives/material/CS_MDV_part3.pdf