Across Africa, less than a third of the population has access to broadband connectivity. Achieving universal, affordable and good–quality Internet access by 2030 will require an estimated investment of US$100?billion. In many African countries, Internet connectivity is provided mainly through mobile technologies, due to a lack of fixed infrastructure. This was a challenge for Mauritius as well. 

Over the past few years, fibre broadband connectivity has been widely discussed in many markets in Africa. It has been acknowledged as required infrastructure for the next generation of services, both in business and residential markets. It will be used by small– and medium–sized enterprises, e-government services and household entertainment across the continent. Yet, with the exception of a few countries, the growth of fibre access networks has been very limited in Africa, due to the high cost of fibre infrastructure deployment and maintenance. This has also resulted in a small target market. Additionally, the landscape of fibre infrastructure providers is often fragmented, with a number of smaller fibre network operators. 

To address these challenges, the Prime Minister of Mauritius and the former Minister of Finance and Economic Development announced the acceleration of the Fibre to the Home (FTTH) programme in a speech about the 2016/2017?budget. Under the programme, Mauritius Telecom would cover every town and village on the island by 2017, ensuring that everyone had access to the Internet. The main objective was to improve the quality and deployment of broadband infrastructure, leaving no household without fibre connectivity. 

The main challenge in implementing the FTTH programme was to identify funds and a partner for the project’s deployment. The Government solicited the cooperation of local telco operators to deploy FTTH connectivity across urban and rural areas. Mauritius Telecom, a major telco operator, invested its own capital in exchange for sole use of its network in the local loop until 2021, to which the Government agreed, in order to secure its return on investment. 

Mauritius Telecom invested over 5?billion rupees (approximately US$75?million) to roll out fibre cable across the island. The project was expected to be completed in 2020 but finished ahead of schedule, in 2019. Mauritius is the sixth country in the world with 100?percent FTTH, and citizens benefit from broadband speeds of up to 100?Mb/s at affordable prices. There is also 100?percent mobile coverage, which means that all regions in Mauritius are served with fibre and mobile connectivity. 

Due to the success of the project, Mauritius has achieved the most outstanding Telecom Maturity Index (TMI) rating in Africa, with a score of 49. This comes as a result of a massive investment from the Government to improve connectivity on the island. In order to build on this success and to keep pace with the vast telecommunications changes, the Government has formulated a new set of policies to provide the necessary infrastructure and regulatory framework to take full advantage of the changing global environment. 

Based on the lesson learned from the successful FTTH deployment, there is a need to provide a regulatory framework that enables private ventures to design innovations and invest in information and communications technology. The Government of Mauritius recognizes that a modernized telecommunications system is central to the economic development of the country and that privatization and economic liberalization of telecommunications is critical to attracting the capital needed to achieve the necessary targets.