Stay out of it!

The Seychelles National Party (SNP) has called on Cable & Wireless to maintain its traditional independence of local party politics, during the current election campaign period.

The SNP’s caution came following the publication of a middle section insert bought by the company in the ruling party’s newspaper, The People to advertise its mobile services.

The party’s Secretary General, Roger Mancienne said it is not fair to the company’s staff to be seen so closely associated with a particular political party.

An open letter addressed to Cable & Wireless’ CEO Charles Hammond, published in the latest Regar newspaper, Mr Mancienne, nonetheless wrote “we respect the decision of the company to advertise in whichever newspaper and in whatever manner it wishes.”

However, he said “we have decided to call this matter to your attention because only two weeks ago, all Cable & Wireless’ employees were, for the first time since Seychelles returned to a multi-party political system, officially cautioned not to publicly display their political affiliation during the election campaign period.”

So far there has been no public statement about the issue from Cable & Wireless.

Airtel first for 3G in Seychelles.

Airtel Telecom Seychelles has become the country’s first telecom to provide the third generation technology for mobile services or “3G.”

Airtel’s Corporate Affairs Manager, Lalita Mayadas said she was confident 3G would bring about “lots of valued added services.”

“We’ll be actually investing on applications to maximize the potential of this network,” said Mayadas.

Seychelles is now amongst the first African countries, together with South Africa, Nigeria and Tanzania with 3G technologies.

Observers say the technology, which allows subscribers Internet access at broadband speeds, could be the answer to the islands’ increasing demands for high-speed Internet.

The 3G launch comes as Airtel was facing tough competition from its rivalry Cable and Wireless, which recently introduced 2.5G (GPRS, Edge) network.

3G, or the killer application as some advertisers proudly call it, supports all the existing GSM functionality and brings additional functionalities such as video calling and mobile TV.

Critics said the success of the system’s implementation would depend on the number of subscribers with third generation phone.

“The price of 3G phones locally is certainly on of the obstacles keeping this innovative service from the reach of most ordinary Seychellois,” commented one phone seller in Victoria.