История развития телекоммуникаций и ИКТ на Маврикии

Telecommunications had an early beginning in Mauritius, with the first telephone line installed in 1883, seven years after the invention of the telephone. Over the years, the network and telephony improved. By the late 20th century, the rapid development and convergence of information and telecommunications technologies gave rise to an ICT industry on the island along with many incentives provided by the government. The government thus aims to make the ICT sector the 5th pillar of the Mauritian economy and Mauritius a Cyber Island. Historically, the country is known for tourism, rather than its call centers and business process outsourcing.

In 1883, basic telephony was introduced in Mauritius, only seven years after the invention of the telephone. The first telephone line was set up between the Colony Governor's residence in Reduit and Government House in Port Louis. The telephone network was maintained by the Electricity and Telephone Department till 1956. From that date, the telecommunications department took that responsibility. The transmission rate of the telegraphic service was 15 words per minute, a historical revolution in those days. Before the independence of the country and till 1985, international communications were managed by Cable & Wireless, a private British company. From 1985, Overseas Telecommunications Services, which subsequently became Mauritius Telecom Limited took over. In 1987, a second standard B earth station and a domestic satellite network were installed with Rodrigues and the Outer Islands. That same year, an X.25 Packet Switched data exchange was also installed. In July 1988, the state owned Department of Telecommunications was privatised to become the Mauritius Telecommunications Services (MTS). With privatisation, national and international activities were merged to form Mauritius Telecom Ltd. In 1989, the Central Informatics Bureau (CIB) was created whose main functions were to plan and coordinate computerization within the Civil Service. The State Informatics Limited was also set up in 1989 initially to help in the computerization of the Civil Service. By 1997, the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications was created to formulate and implement policies regarding the development of the ICT sector. The CISD and CIB became departments within this new ministry. In 2009, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority rejected an application from Outremer Telecom for a cellular telephony licence. In 2014, the Commercial Division of the Supreme Court ordered Data Communication Ltd to pay to the Information and Communication Technologies Authority the sum of Rs 20,672,135.80 inclusive of surcharges for late payment, with costs.

Television broadcast stations: Only one state controlled station, Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation, as the government refuses to issue licences to domestic broadcasters.

Mauritius has several operators like Mauritius Telecom, Mahanagar Telephone Mauritius Limited (MTML) & Emtel. Each operator uses a different technology to provide Internet access. MTML uses CDMA2000 and Emtel uses HSDPA (3.5G). The monopoly is retained by Mauritius Telecom (MT) which provides dial up & ADSL services over existing telephone lines.

In 2007, the government took down Facebook for a day. There is a National Cyber Security Strategy for the government to set up a comprehensive framework to monitor Internet traffic which might be harmful to the nation and society. in 2016, a couple was arrested after sharing a post about the Minister of Housing and Lands on Facebook. In September 2016, the Internet filtering and Public Key Infrastructure servers operated by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority were seized by the National Security Service.