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.

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.