France Telecom-Orange and the other members of the Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION2) consortium have launched commercial services on the submarine cable LION2. The 2,700-km, fibre-optic cable uses WDM technology, offering a maximum potential capacity of 1.28 Tbps, to be increased without additional submarine work. The cable was launched by the Orange subsidiaries Mauritius Telecom, Orange Madagascar and Orange Kenya, as well as two other operators, Emtel and Societe Reunionnaise du Radiotelephone. It provides the island of Mayotte with broadband connectivity for the first time and reinforces international network connectivity for Kenya. The new cable concludes the second phase of the group's plans to expand broadband connectivity in the Indian Ocean. The original LION cable, which links Madagascar to the global broadband network via the Reunion and Mauritius islands, has now been extended to Kenya via Mayotte, with the LION2 cable. In Kenya, the LION2 cable is connected through a new landing station that has been built at Nyali, close to Mombasa, and marks the fourth submarine cable to connect the country in recent years. LION2 provides the Orange group with an alternative route for passing secure broadband transmissions through Europe and Asia for all African countries in which the group is located. The construction of the LION2 cable represents a total investment of around EUR 57 million, of which about EUR 38 million came from France Telecom and its subsidiaries.
