FTTH services to Maldives under the brand name "Dhiraagu Fiber Broadband". Dhiraagu commercially launched LTE Advanced for the first time in Maldives and the first in South Asia. 2017 – On May 25, Dhiraagu rebranded and introduced a new logo and the slogan "Take On Tomorrow". Tier 2 network On September 18, 2005 Dhiraagu signed an agreement with SLTMobitel 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. On November 14, 2006 the cable was connected to a landing site at Hulhumale', Maldives. 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. Criticism Dhiraagu held a monopoly on the telecoms market in the Maldives from its creation until 2005, a situation it is accused of having created and maintained. Until 2004, the Telecommunications Authority of Maldives had refrained from issuing additional licenses to other 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 lowered service prices in the mid- to late-2000s. See also Telecommunications in the Maldives References External links Official Dhiraagu website Telecommunications companies of the Maldives Internet service providers of the Maldives