Kolhufushi, Maldives

Kolhufushi: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Kolhufushi is an inhabited island located off the southwest coast of Meemu Atoll (also known as Mulaku Atoll) in the Maldives. As an island nation, the Maldives relies on submarine cable infrastructure to maintain connectivity across its dispersed atolls, and Kolhufushi participates in that network as one of 17 submarine cable landing points across the country. One submarine cable lands at Kolhufushi, connecting it to the domestic inter-island cable system that links communities throughout the Maldivian archipelago.

The cable landing here forms part of an intra-national corridor, enabling connectivity between Kolhufushi and other islands within the Maldives rather than reaching outward to foreign shores. This positions Kolhufushi as a node within the country's domestic submarine cable framework, serving the local population of the island, which is among the more populous islands in Meemu Atoll.

Cables Landing at Kolhufushi

The Nationwide Submarine Cable Ooredoo Maldives (NaSCOM) is the sole submarine cable landing at Kolhufushi. Spanning 1,136 kilometres, NaSCOM reached ready-for-service status in 2016 and operates entirely within the Maldives, with all of its landing points located in the same country. The cable was developed in a draft capacity and is designed to deliver inter-island connectivity across the Maldivian archipelago. Its domestic scope means that NaSCOM directly addresses the challenge of linking geographically dispersed island communities within a single nation-state.

Regional Context

Among the 17 submarine cable landing points in the Maldives, Kolhufushi ranks in the top 59 percent by cable count, hosting one cable. By comparison, Hulhumale leads the country with seven cables, while Eydhafushi, Hithadhoo, and Kulhudhufushi each host three, and Dhangethi and Maafushi each host two. Kolhufushi serves a more focused role within the national network than these multi-cable peers.

Network Role

Kolhufushi functions as a single-cable terminus on the NaSCOM system, connecting the island to the broader domestic submarine cable infrastructure of the Maldives. The NaSCOM cable, at 1,136 kilometres, is considerably shorter than the national average cable length of 2,698 kilometres recorded across Maldivian landing points, reflecting its purpose as an intra-archipelago link rather than a long-haul international connection. The landing point enables Kolhufushi, one of the more populated islands in Meemu Atoll, to receive submarine cable-based connectivity alongside other Maldivian islands on the same system.

As one of 17 landing points distributed across the Maldives since the country's first cable came into service in 2006, Kolhufushi represents the continued geographic expansion of domestic submarine cable coverage across the nation's many inhabited islands. Its presence in the Maldivian submarine cable graph illustrates how inter-island cable networks reach beyond principal population centres to serve communities distributed throughout the atolls.