The announcement that a new service in the form of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) will be available in Seychelles by early next year is raising expectations that consumers will be spoilt for choices and that phone tariffs will finally be reduced. But will this really be the case?
In announcing further liberalisation of the telecommunications industry, the department of Information and Communications (DITC) says, “it is expected that prices will be even more competitive and that both consumers and businesses will enjoy more choices.”
DITC has issued the first VoIP licence to the cable television entertainment service provider, Intelvision, bringing to three the number of Internet service providers (ISP) in that industry in Seychelles. The other two are ATLAS and Kokoket.
Consequently, Intelvision will, by means of its cable television network, be able to provide Internet and telephone services.
VoIP (voice over IP - that is, voice delivered using the Internet Protocol) means sending voice information in digital form in discrete packets rather than in the traditional circuit-committed protocols of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). A major advantage of VoIP and Internet telephony is that it avoids the tolls charged by ordinary telephone service.
According to the DITC, Intelvision can use its licence to provide a variety of marketing offerings which can be categorised into three groupings:
1. A product (such as a software program run on a personal
computer) with no ongoing provision of a service.
2. Corporate private networks, used for internal communication
within large companies, for sole use of that corporation
3. Publicly available VoIP services which are subjected to
remuneration.
The department explained that with the development of new services, which uses VoIP technology, the proper regulatory framework has to be put into place, to ensure Seychelles gain from all the benefits such as increased competition and the stimulation of new and innovative services for its citizens.
Hence all the publicities surrounding the new Broadcasting and Telecommunication (VoIP services) Regulation 2005 and the Licences (Broadcasting and Telecommunication) (Amendment) Regulation, 2005.
“In doing so, the department has recognized that a balance needs to be struck between creating the right conditions for deployment of VoIP services and ensuring that consumers are properly informed and protected,” the department said.
Friday, December 30, 2005
Monday, December 12, 2005
And so the battle continues.
The ongoing battle between Cable & Wireless Seychelles (C&W) and Telecom Seychelles Ltd (Airtel) to reign supreme as the islands’ leading mobile operator is strengthening despite “a challenging economic environment,” that’s forcing them both to dig deep to re-invest.
Just two weeks after Cable & Wireless Seychelles announced plans to invest in equipment and services with the aim of enhancing its all round mobile offering, its competitor Airtel is jumping on the band wagon also.
Both telecoms say their new investments will “bring telecommunications infrastructure in Seychelles to new heights, at par with the most advanced countries in the world.”
C&W is investing SR35m whilst Airtel is spending SR9m more in its advanced network.
Both companies are enhancing their Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication networks and prepaid services with a brand new GSM/General Packets Radio System (GPRS – 2.5G) mobile network, which is also third generation (3G) compatible.
During his recent visit to Seychelles the Chairman of the Bharti Group (Airtel’s parent company) Sunil Bharti Mittal says “the investment will put Seychelles onto wireless broadband highway ahead of most Asian and African countries.”
On his part the C&W’s Chief Executive Usman Saadat describes the positive results their customer will experience as a new era for mobile users in the country.
“The initiative to make mobile communications easier and more advance than ever before is all designed to ensure that telecommunications capabilities in Seychelles are up there with the best in the world,” says Saadat.
The new infrastructure will open a gateway to Multimedia messaging (MMS), WAP (Mobile Internet Browsing) Data Cards, Prepaid Roaming and advanced billing system.
By mid 2006, both Postpaid and Prepaid customers and roamers from all over the world can expect to see more attractive services and enhanced performance from the two companies.
Despite both companies committed approach in introduce advance services in the country, their clients’ greatest expectation is to see this battle resulting in further deduction in telephony costs.
Just two weeks after Cable & Wireless Seychelles announced plans to invest in equipment and services with the aim of enhancing its all round mobile offering, its competitor Airtel is jumping on the band wagon also.
Both telecoms say their new investments will “bring telecommunications infrastructure in Seychelles to new heights, at par with the most advanced countries in the world.”
C&W is investing SR35m whilst Airtel is spending SR9m more in its advanced network.
Both companies are enhancing their Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication networks and prepaid services with a brand new GSM/General Packets Radio System (GPRS – 2.5G) mobile network, which is also third generation (3G) compatible.
During his recent visit to Seychelles the Chairman of the Bharti Group (Airtel’s parent company) Sunil Bharti Mittal says “the investment will put Seychelles onto wireless broadband highway ahead of most Asian and African countries.”
On his part the C&W’s Chief Executive Usman Saadat describes the positive results their customer will experience as a new era for mobile users in the country.
“The initiative to make mobile communications easier and more advance than ever before is all designed to ensure that telecommunications capabilities in Seychelles are up there with the best in the world,” says Saadat.
The new infrastructure will open a gateway to Multimedia messaging (MMS), WAP (Mobile Internet Browsing) Data Cards, Prepaid Roaming and advanced billing system.
By mid 2006, both Postpaid and Prepaid customers and roamers from all over the world can expect to see more attractive services and enhanced performance from the two companies.
Despite both companies committed approach in introduce advance services in the country, their clients’ greatest expectation is to see this battle resulting in further deduction in telephony costs.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
2006 budget offered slim hope of a reduction in phone tariffs.
The annual budget has given little hope that phone charges will reduce in Seychelles in the year ahead.
In his budget speech to the National Assembly yesterday in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, President James Michel gave no clear indication of an adjustment in trade tax on post-paid phone.
However, the president welcomed recent reductions in rates for both local and international calls.
“Following initial negotiations with Cable & Wireless and Airtel, it is expected that there will be further reductions in the coming year,” the president said.
However, he stopped short of announcing any concrete revision in trade tax, like the 7% adjustment he announced on domestic air travel, for instance.
At present Trade Tax on Airtel post-paid bill is at 12% whereas that on Cable & Wireless stands at 17%.
Seychelles phone charges remain higher than in comparable countries, despite the current price war between the two telecoms – forcing some call tariffs to be cut. But critics say the country’s duopoly scenario in the telecom sector, if anything has over the years encouraged more of a cartel environment with very little benefits passed on to the consumers.
A first Quality of Service (QoS) report in the telecommunication industry published in October shows an increase of 28,000 mobile subscribers in Seychelles between the year 2000 and 2005:
Over 60% of the 54,000 subscribers are pre-paid clients who pay substantially more for their calls than wealthier contract consumers.
Whilst both companies have introduced post-paid packages for employees of large organizations, whereby they pay as low as 28c/min for mobile calls around the clock, Cable & Wireless’ pre-paid customers pay as high as Rs4.22/minute and those of Airtel Rs3.99/minute, during peak hours.
In addition to such exorbitant rates, the two companies still charge their clients per minutes instead of seconds. They also charge them for every three minutes, and not every minute, for fixed-line telephone calls.
But in announcing further liberalisation of the telecommunications industry early this year, the department of Information and Communications (DITC) says, “it is expected that prices will be even more competitive and that both consumers and businesses will enjoy more choices.”
DITC has issued the first VoIP licence to the cable television service provider. By early next year, Intelvision will by means of its cable television network, be able to provide Internet and telephone services.
To ensure its commitment to consumer protection I reckon the DITC ought to take the following actions:
·The introduction of more competition in the
sector,
·Ongoing “regulation of prices” and
·“Once-off reduction” of prices to an acceptable level
that reflects the (real) cost of providing a particular
service.
Although the country is making considerable progress in the liberalisation of telecommunications, critics argue as long as customer services organisations do not have proper channels or have the power to impose sanctions, cell phone tariffs will remain high in Seychelles.
Friday, November 25, 2005
Seychelles’ business community calls for joint venture with government.
The Seychelles’ business community is calling on the government to facilitate their task in achieving one of the Tunis goals: to look at ways of using information and communication technologies to improve living standards in the community.
“By investing together in the information society we’ll share its ownership and develop it together for the benefits of the Seychellois community,” says the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry(SCCI) ’s Secretary General Nicole Tirant-Gherardi.
SCCI is a member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and was represented at WSIS in Tunis by CCBI – the Coordinating Committee of Business Interlocutors chaired by ICC.
The need to develop a public-private partnership in the information society is because each side compliments the other.
The government in Seychelles is responsible for providing: education and training, the rule of law, a neutral competitive marketplace and the protection of intellectual property.
On its part the business community brings with it invaluable market experience and the ability to put that knowledge into practice.
“There’s a need for a more interactive involvement by the government in the local ICT industry. Setting regulations that simply get accepted doesn’t go far enough. Both sides should sit down and exchange views on ways of improving the lives of every person on these islands,” says Galen Bresson of The Home Electronic Shop.
The business community is urging the government to open up dialogue on how they can share the financing cost of joining the SAFE (South Africa-Far East) fibre-optic network. SAFE is a connection of over 13,800 km from Cape Town in South Africa to Malaysia, linking Seychelles’ neighbours Mauritius, Reunion and India on the way.
“This connection will make trade and communication easier between the international markets and Seychelles with added high capacity, speed and reliability and costumers will observe a great drop in Internet charges,” says ATLAS’ Executive Chairman, Mark Hoareau.
The private sector also believes the government should seriously consider plans of selling Seychelles as an ideal destination for the setting up of a “Silicon Valley,” as an additional export service to boost the country’s decelerating economy.
“Seychelles is well placed to be competitive in this sector. We are perfectly situated between the European and Asian time zones, have an educated bi-lingual population, a health hazards free and politically stable country. If those won’t sell we still have the sun, sea and sand,” concludes SBC News journalist Lindy Vital.
In any community ICTs will flourish only if business investment and national governments work in close consultation with civil society, interest groups and the scientific and technical communities. By coming together they’ll be capable of creating an environment in which there’ll be an improvement in the standard of living.
“By investing together in the information society we’ll share its ownership and develop it together for the benefits of the Seychellois community,” says the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry(SCCI) ’s Secretary General Nicole Tirant-Gherardi.
SCCI is a member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and was represented at WSIS in Tunis by CCBI – the Coordinating Committee of Business Interlocutors chaired by ICC.
The need to develop a public-private partnership in the information society is because each side compliments the other.
The government in Seychelles is responsible for providing: education and training, the rule of law, a neutral competitive marketplace and the protection of intellectual property.
On its part the business community brings with it invaluable market experience and the ability to put that knowledge into practice.
“There’s a need for a more interactive involvement by the government in the local ICT industry. Setting regulations that simply get accepted doesn’t go far enough. Both sides should sit down and exchange views on ways of improving the lives of every person on these islands,” says Galen Bresson of The Home Electronic Shop.
The business community is urging the government to open up dialogue on how they can share the financing cost of joining the SAFE (South Africa-Far East) fibre-optic network. SAFE is a connection of over 13,800 km from Cape Town in South Africa to Malaysia, linking Seychelles’ neighbours Mauritius, Reunion and India on the way.
“This connection will make trade and communication easier between the international markets and Seychelles with added high capacity, speed and reliability and costumers will observe a great drop in Internet charges,” says ATLAS’ Executive Chairman, Mark Hoareau.
The private sector also believes the government should seriously consider plans of selling Seychelles as an ideal destination for the setting up of a “Silicon Valley,” as an additional export service to boost the country’s decelerating economy.
“Seychelles is well placed to be competitive in this sector. We are perfectly situated between the European and Asian time zones, have an educated bi-lingual population, a health hazards free and politically stable country. If those won’t sell we still have the sun, sea and sand,” concludes SBC News journalist Lindy Vital.
In any community ICTs will flourish only if business investment and national governments work in close consultation with civil society, interest groups and the scientific and technical communities. By coming together they’ll be capable of creating an environment in which there’ll be an improvement in the standard of living.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Airtel launches Seychelles’ first SMS promotional service.
It came unannounced and unexpectedly: an SMS from local singer, Sheila informing Airtel clients that her second solo album Mon Enfant II, is now available on the market.
Reminiscent of the Minority Report saga in the US, whereby complaints were registered about promos sent to mobile phones to promote the 2003 Tom Cruise’s movie, not every Airtel consumers were happy.
“The service provider should have sought their clients' consent first. Now they’re proposing that consumers should inform them if they do not want such promotional service. Yet we know even if we response by a phone call or a SMS we still have to pay,” says the National Consumers’ Forum (NATCOF)'s Director Rachel Marie.
Airtel says the decision to launch this service came after being approached by many companies and individuals who realised the potential of advertising on SMS.
“Being a young innovative company, Airtel is always striving to introduce news services where technology allows,” says Retha D’offay, a marketing officer of Airtel.
“NATCOF welcomes such an initiative as consumers are given the opportunity to have information at their finger tips, but at the same time consumers must be in a position to make the right choice and not have the service provider thinking for them,” according to Ms Marie.
SMS has proven to be an extremely effective advertising media. Through Airtel alone 24,000 customers (both postpaid and pre-paid) can be reached instantaneously.
“Due to mobile phones being part of almost everyone’s daily lifestyle, it seldom leaves its owner’s side. Unlike a phone call, sms can be read at the owner’s convenience, reducing inconvenience during advertising,” remarks Ms D’Offay.
To send a promotional SMS to the whole subscribers’ based; it costs Rs2, 000 per message or Rs5, 000 for four messages.
“Such scheme should heighten local artisans’ creativity, as they now have another opportunity to share information with the general public on SMS,” says the Small Enterprise Promotion Agency (SEnPA)’s Public Relation Officer Mastura Shah-Clarisse.
Since the launch of its new advertising media, Airtel says it has received many inquiries. The most important potential of SMS would be seen in the case of an emergency. SMS can be used to warn people of the oncoming natural disaster, like tsunamis, or social messaging for example HIV/AIDS awareness, etc….
Reminiscent of the Minority Report saga in the US, whereby complaints were registered about promos sent to mobile phones to promote the 2003 Tom Cruise’s movie, not every Airtel consumers were happy.
“The service provider should have sought their clients' consent first. Now they’re proposing that consumers should inform them if they do not want such promotional service. Yet we know even if we response by a phone call or a SMS we still have to pay,” says the National Consumers’ Forum (NATCOF)'s Director Rachel Marie.
Airtel says the decision to launch this service came after being approached by many companies and individuals who realised the potential of advertising on SMS.
“Being a young innovative company, Airtel is always striving to introduce news services where technology allows,” says Retha D’offay, a marketing officer of Airtel.
“NATCOF welcomes such an initiative as consumers are given the opportunity to have information at their finger tips, but at the same time consumers must be in a position to make the right choice and not have the service provider thinking for them,” according to Ms Marie.
SMS has proven to be an extremely effective advertising media. Through Airtel alone 24,000 customers (both postpaid and pre-paid) can be reached instantaneously.
“Due to mobile phones being part of almost everyone’s daily lifestyle, it seldom leaves its owner’s side. Unlike a phone call, sms can be read at the owner’s convenience, reducing inconvenience during advertising,” remarks Ms D’Offay.
To send a promotional SMS to the whole subscribers’ based; it costs Rs2, 000 per message or Rs5, 000 for four messages.
“Such scheme should heighten local artisans’ creativity, as they now have another opportunity to share information with the general public on SMS,” says the Small Enterprise Promotion Agency (SEnPA)’s Public Relation Officer Mastura Shah-Clarisse.
Since the launch of its new advertising media, Airtel says it has received many inquiries. The most important potential of SMS would be seen in the case of an emergency. SMS can be used to warn people of the oncoming natural disaster, like tsunamis, or social messaging for example HIV/AIDS awareness, etc….
Friday, November 11, 2005
One year of cable television: How well are we flaring?
The cable television company, Intelvision marked its first anniversary this week, with most Seychellois being left aside in the celebration.
The persistent criticism against Intelvision is the rather out of reach charges for most average wage earners.
Although the company recently stated “the service is continuously proving its popularity by the constant growth in the number of new subscribers” and that “the figures are well above their projected targets,” critics chose to take this with a pinch of salt.
A sign of hard time for the company is that it has been forced to offer easy-payment terms to its customers giving them greater financial flexibility and encouraging more households in Seychelles to subscribe.
Intelvision offers 5 packages:
Basic, 7 channels for Rs75/month.
Executive, 15 channels for Rs250/month.
Indian, 5 channels for Rs250/month.
Prestige, 28 channels for Rs400/month.
Extravagance, 41 channels for Rs600/month.
The initial connecting fees include:
· Installation:Rs400
· Decoder:Rs800
· Smart card:Rs200.
Following several complaints, the company is now allowing customers to pay the installation charges over a period of five months, plus you get the Executive package free for a month or you only have to pay the difference for any other packages you wish to subscribe to.
Customers are now also allowed to upgrade or downgrade their packages at the end of the subscription period.
Intelvision has also been criticised for forcing customers to buy one decoder per TV set, although technologies that allow households to watch more than one channel simultaneously do exist.
In an effort to increase its customer base there have been press report recently that the company is offering employees from large organisations discount packages.
The company receives TV signals via satellite from the South African company, Multi-Choice. Therefore, all programmes are two hours ahead of scheduled times.
On the occasion of its first anniversary Intelvision has announced plans to widen the range of channels for its viewers and expand its services with the launch of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Internet services by early next year.
The persistent criticism against Intelvision is the rather out of reach charges for most average wage earners.
Although the company recently stated “the service is continuously proving its popularity by the constant growth in the number of new subscribers” and that “the figures are well above their projected targets,” critics chose to take this with a pinch of salt.
A sign of hard time for the company is that it has been forced to offer easy-payment terms to its customers giving them greater financial flexibility and encouraging more households in Seychelles to subscribe.
Intelvision offers 5 packages:
Basic, 7 channels for Rs75/month.
Executive, 15 channels for Rs250/month.
Indian, 5 channels for Rs250/month.
Prestige, 28 channels for Rs400/month.
Extravagance, 41 channels for Rs600/month.
The initial connecting fees include:
· Installation:Rs400
· Decoder:Rs800
· Smart card:Rs200.
Following several complaints, the company is now allowing customers to pay the installation charges over a period of five months, plus you get the Executive package free for a month or you only have to pay the difference for any other packages you wish to subscribe to.
Customers are now also allowed to upgrade or downgrade their packages at the end of the subscription period.
Intelvision has also been criticised for forcing customers to buy one decoder per TV set, although technologies that allow households to watch more than one channel simultaneously do exist.
In an effort to increase its customer base there have been press report recently that the company is offering employees from large organisations discount packages.
The company receives TV signals via satellite from the South African company, Multi-Choice. Therefore, all programmes are two hours ahead of scheduled times.
On the occasion of its first anniversary Intelvision has announced plans to widen the range of channels for its viewers and expand its services with the launch of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Internet services by early next year.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Creole needs to be developed further towards the Internet.
The 20th edition of Festival Kreol ended last week in Seychelles. In conclusion, linguists offered a strong warning that if the Creole language is to survive, then its rightful place in cyberspace has to be ensured.
During the weeklong cultural event depicting the islands’ heritage and tradition, academics from the Creole-speaking nations met for a three-day linguistic conference under the theme, “the future of Creole is in its functionality.”
At present, it’s evident that Creole is used minimally on the web.
“To ensure its propagation, a Cyber community for it will have to emerge gradually, whereby a group of people communicate in Creole using communication and information technologies, ” said the Chief Technology Officer from Reliant Unified Solution, Ronny Adonis.
Creole has already got a standardized spelling system. Now what’s needed is to develop it further towards the Internet.
"One way around this is to encourage a web culture amongst local businesses, whereby locally built web sites use Creole as a working language alongside French and English,” remarked Jaya Nair from Space '95.
One of the key arguments hindering the spread of Creole in the Information Society is the adoption of words for technology that have not been developed in Seychelles.
“We should support actions aimed at teaching Creole, in order to consolidate, or even to increase, the number of the people able to use it to communicate through ICTs,” suggested George Thande from the local daily newspaper, The Seychelles Nation.
The director of the Creole Institute, Penda Choppy, said we needed assistance at international level. This would help to solve many technical problems, such as the creation of software that would allow the browser to translate and read the content of any pages written in most underprivileged languages, for example Creole.
The institute has indicated that it has plans to create language courses in Creole. This will be done by applying modern technologies such as multimedia support, CD-ROMs, books, the Web, etc. in support of systematic targeted instruction in the language and its spelling.
“Once it has been educated, this community of Creole speakers will easily be able to use Creole to communicate on Internet, and it will be gradually transformed into a cyber community,” suggests Mrs Choppy.
“The aim must be to make any language a working language for it to stay alive,” she added.
During the weeklong cultural event depicting the islands’ heritage and tradition, academics from the Creole-speaking nations met for a three-day linguistic conference under the theme, “the future of Creole is in its functionality.”
At present, it’s evident that Creole is used minimally on the web.
“To ensure its propagation, a Cyber community for it will have to emerge gradually, whereby a group of people communicate in Creole using communication and information technologies, ” said the Chief Technology Officer from Reliant Unified Solution, Ronny Adonis.
Creole has already got a standardized spelling system. Now what’s needed is to develop it further towards the Internet.
"One way around this is to encourage a web culture amongst local businesses, whereby locally built web sites use Creole as a working language alongside French and English,” remarked Jaya Nair from Space '95.
One of the key arguments hindering the spread of Creole in the Information Society is the adoption of words for technology that have not been developed in Seychelles.
“We should support actions aimed at teaching Creole, in order to consolidate, or even to increase, the number of the people able to use it to communicate through ICTs,” suggested George Thande from the local daily newspaper, The Seychelles Nation.
The director of the Creole Institute, Penda Choppy, said we needed assistance at international level. This would help to solve many technical problems, such as the creation of software that would allow the browser to translate and read the content of any pages written in most underprivileged languages, for example Creole.
The institute has indicated that it has plans to create language courses in Creole. This will be done by applying modern technologies such as multimedia support, CD-ROMs, books, the Web, etc. in support of systematic targeted instruction in the language and its spelling.
“Once it has been educated, this community of Creole speakers will easily be able to use Creole to communicate on Internet, and it will be gradually transformed into a cyber community,” suggests Mrs Choppy.
“The aim must be to make any language a working language for it to stay alive,” she added.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Seychelles Digital: Simplifying the bigger picture.
Whilst hosting the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC)’ s AM Service weekly midday show – Kot Lakour – in 2003, a bright idea suddenly dawned on me.
I would create a fortnightly 15-minute feature that would help familiarize women at home, or housewives, with home electronics! The show would answer questions like:
·How do you maintain your microwave, electric toothbrush
or washing machine?
·Where are the best places to set up your home
technologies?
·Which technologies are the most important to new
homebuyers?
·How do you choose electronic devices?
·Can you trust anybody to fix your electronic devices?
These simple questions, I had hoped, would help provide answers. The point is that users should not struggle to use new technologies. If anything, they should enjoy the benefits that home electronics have to offer.
However, the idea soon developed into a 30-minute fortnightly magazine show. The show debates issues such as, how and under what conditions Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can best be used in the development process of Seychelles in general.
The range of topics dealt with over the last three years have illustrated how ICTs can:
·Help to empower people by opening up educational and
other opportunities,
·Be used to improve quality and delivery of public
services,
·Have potentially harmful side effects and how they are
best avoided.
The programme is the only one of its kind and it promotes information society issues locally. It also aims at opening up communication channels, which reach out to all Seychellois.
Listen to Seychelles Digital every two Wednesdays @ 7.30pm. The repeat is on the following Sunday @ 10.30am (AM: 219m 1368 kHz. Online: SBC Radio).
I would create a fortnightly 15-minute feature that would help familiarize women at home, or housewives, with home electronics! The show would answer questions like:
·How do you maintain your microwave, electric toothbrush
or washing machine?
·Where are the best places to set up your home
technologies?
·Which technologies are the most important to new
homebuyers?
·How do you choose electronic devices?
·Can you trust anybody to fix your electronic devices?
These simple questions, I had hoped, would help provide answers. The point is that users should not struggle to use new technologies. If anything, they should enjoy the benefits that home electronics have to offer.
However, the idea soon developed into a 30-minute fortnightly magazine show. The show debates issues such as, how and under what conditions Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can best be used in the development process of Seychelles in general.
The range of topics dealt with over the last three years have illustrated how ICTs can:
·Help to empower people by opening up educational and
other opportunities,
·Be used to improve quality and delivery of public
services,
·Have potentially harmful side effects and how they are
best avoided.
The programme is the only one of its kind and it promotes information society issues locally. It also aims at opening up communication channels, which reach out to all Seychellois.
Listen to Seychelles Digital every two Wednesdays @ 7.30pm. The repeat is on the following Sunday @ 10.30am (AM: 219m 1368 kHz. Online: SBC Radio).
Monday, October 31, 2005
Seychelles publishes first quality service report.
“Seychelles is among the leaders in the use of advanced technology in the region,” says a report published last week by the department of Information Technology and Communications (DITC).
The report, the first of its kind to be published here looked at the quality of service (QoS) of the Information Technology service. The services included were fixed line and mobile telephone services and broadband Internet service. The factors considered to define a good QoS were: availability, accessibility, bandwidth, performance and reliability.
The DITC says the information collected provided an indication of the performances and an improvement in the network of the operators over the previous years.
Although the report says, “Seychelles is among the leaders in the use of advanced technology in the region” the QoS was only compared between locally based telecoms and Internet Service Providers (ISP).
It shows subscribers have really adopted to the mobile by storm. Since the year 2000 the bubble has been expanding from just fewer than 26,000 subscribers to a massive 54,000 to date. Continuing the trends since 2000 more Seychellois are choosing pre-paid phones over post-paid. Total pre-paid subscription is up by 15% compared to last year’s figure.
As a result less people are subscribing direct exchange lines (DEL). The fixed line penetration for Seychelles has been on a downslide for the past fours years. The decline has been attributed to a lack of infrastructure developments in the fixed network from the telecommunication operators.
The report also shows a reduction in the number of public phones since 2001 where there were a total of 287 pay phones. Although the number of pay phones has decreased, the percentage of available working phones remains fairly high for both operators.
Though the number of Internet accounts remains relatively low compared to the number of DELs, access to the Internet has increased over the last two years with numerous Internet cafés opening up and with the increase availability of Internet in schools.
Seychelles liberalisation process in the ICT sector was triggered by the return of multiparty democracy in 1991. After enjoying a monopoly for almost 100 years, Cable & Wireless was joined by its only competitor to date Telecom Seychelles Ltd commonly known as Airtel.
In September 1996 the island got its first Internet connection. To date Seychelles has two ISPs, ATLAS and Kokonet. Cable television was introduced in 1997.
Critics say despite the indication that Seychelles’ competitive environment and technological advancement are on the right track, however, consumers are being charged higher than in comparable countries and customer services organisations do not have any voice to raise concerns.
The report, the first of its kind to be published here looked at the quality of service (QoS) of the Information Technology service. The services included were fixed line and mobile telephone services and broadband Internet service. The factors considered to define a good QoS were: availability, accessibility, bandwidth, performance and reliability.
The DITC says the information collected provided an indication of the performances and an improvement in the network of the operators over the previous years.
Although the report says, “Seychelles is among the leaders in the use of advanced technology in the region” the QoS was only compared between locally based telecoms and Internet Service Providers (ISP).
It shows subscribers have really adopted to the mobile by storm. Since the year 2000 the bubble has been expanding from just fewer than 26,000 subscribers to a massive 54,000 to date. Continuing the trends since 2000 more Seychellois are choosing pre-paid phones over post-paid. Total pre-paid subscription is up by 15% compared to last year’s figure.
As a result less people are subscribing direct exchange lines (DEL). The fixed line penetration for Seychelles has been on a downslide for the past fours years. The decline has been attributed to a lack of infrastructure developments in the fixed network from the telecommunication operators.
The report also shows a reduction in the number of public phones since 2001 where there were a total of 287 pay phones. Although the number of pay phones has decreased, the percentage of available working phones remains fairly high for both operators.
Though the number of Internet accounts remains relatively low compared to the number of DELs, access to the Internet has increased over the last two years with numerous Internet cafés opening up and with the increase availability of Internet in schools.
Seychelles liberalisation process in the ICT sector was triggered by the return of multiparty democracy in 1991. After enjoying a monopoly for almost 100 years, Cable & Wireless was joined by its only competitor to date Telecom Seychelles Ltd commonly known as Airtel.
In September 1996 the island got its first Internet connection. To date Seychelles has two ISPs, ATLAS and Kokonet. Cable television was introduced in 1997.
Critics say despite the indication that Seychelles’ competitive environment and technological advancement are on the right track, however, consumers are being charged higher than in comparable countries and customer services organisations do not have any voice to raise concerns.
Seychelles plans new way ahead for ICT training.
The Seychelles government is considering plans of setting up a National Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Training Centre to cater for demands on the local employment market.
The Seychelles President made the announcement at a recent public consultative meeting.
Mr James Alix Michel said the decision has been encouraged by the development he has witnessed first hand in this sector, during his recent state visit to India.
Mr Michel visited India in July this year.
India is one of the world’s leading ICT specialists training country. Some 12,000 Indian computer programmers, engineers, web designers and web administrators are absorbed into the US, Australian and European ICC industry every year.
The new Seychelles ICT training plan will also support the development of the offshore industry as the third pillar of the economy according to Mr. Michel.
Under a new secondary school curriculum which will be implemented from January next year ICT will be introduce as an academic subject with the possibility of IGSCE in computer studies being introduced in two years time. Currently some 15 students are undertaking A' Level in computer studies at the Seychelles Polytechnic per annum, with an average of three straight A's.
The country’s ICT training ambition got a boost in December 2004 through a Microsoft specialist IT course for educators to teach some 200 teachers in one year to incorporate ICT as a training tool in other school subjects.
The director for IT services in the Ministry of Education (MoE) Robin Zarine, says the programme will expose the children to ICT at a very early age and help bridge the digital divide in the long-term.
The ministry of education’s effort is being hailed as an ambitious plan but already there are calls not to leave behind those who are not at school or not following any courses at the various local IT training centers.
Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) TV news anchor Kevin Malbrook says the media should fill the gap.
“In the meantime, our lives grow more and more digital, and we need journalists who can keep up with, and do justice to, this epochal story in all its facets -- scientific, economic, policy, legal, human interest, cultural and developmental, to list just some,” says Malbrook.
It is evident that Seychelles’ development in the ICT sector still requires a lot to be at par with its neighbor India.
Yet what’s needed is not so much out of sight.
“A pragmatic, practical, innovative programme is needed locally, which must be flexible and design to meet the different needs of the Seychellois community,” concluded President Michel.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Byen Veni/ Welcome
Hi folks,
Welcome to my blog, where hopefully you'll be able to read somethings interesting about my thoughts on ICT issues.
The subject is taking over the journalistic arena and I'm eager to make my voice heard.
You are most welcome to add your comments and together we can live the future.
Gervais J. Henrie.
Welcome to my blog, where hopefully you'll be able to read somethings interesting about my thoughts on ICT issues.
The subject is taking over the journalistic arena and I'm eager to make my voice heard.
You are most welcome to add your comments and together we can live the future.
Gervais J. Henrie.
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