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.
The first telephone line was set up between the Colony Governor's residence in Reduit and Government House in Port Louis.
[7] In 1989, the Central Informatics Bureau (CIB) was created whose main functions were to plan and coordinate computerization within the Civil Service.
[12] Telephones - main lines in use: 372,200 (2014) Telephones - mobile cellular: 1,652,000 (2014) Telephone system: small system with good service domestic: primarily microwave radio relay trunk system international: country code - 230; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean); new microwave link to Reunion; HF radiotelephone links to several countries; fiber optic submarine cable (SAT-3/WASC/SAFE) provides connectivity to Europe and Asia Radio broadcast stations: AM 4, FM 9, shortwave 0 (2002) Radios: 420,000 (1997) Television broadcast stations: 2 (plus several repeaters) (1997) Televisions: 258,000 (1997) Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 14 (2014) Internet users: 735,400 (2014) [13] Country code (Top level domain): MU Television broadcast stations: Only one state-controlled station, Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation, as the government refuses to issue licences to domestic broadcasters.
The monopoly is retained by Mauritius Telecom (MT) which provides dial-up & ADSL services over existing telephone lines.
[17] 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.
[18] In 2024, the Computer Emergency Response Team of Mauritius requested Facebook to remove videos of WhatsApp calls of lawyers, politicians, journalists, and government officials..[19]