January: Cable & Wireless became the new owner of Atlas.
After weeks of speculations Seychelles’ oldest telecommunication company, CWS announced it has reached agreement to purchase the whole of the share capital of Atlas (Seychelles) Limited, the country’s first Internet Service Provider.
The deal worth SR19 million furthered CWS’ ability in offering customers a full range of services including wireless broadband, dial-up access and leased lines. CWS is now not just Seychelles’ leading telecommunications company but also the foremost provider of Internet services in Seychelles.
February: Kokonet launched telephone service over the Internet.
Internet Provider Kokonet introduced its Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, Kokotalk, to benefit all its wireless broadband customers.
The service permits phone calls via the Internet through standard analogue phones as well as sending fax to any international destination at the rate of R3 per call. Subscribers are also be able to make calls via a soft phone, a programme that they can set up on their PC to speak to other online users.
Subscribers were allocated six-digit numbers beginning with the number 47.
March: Price war.
CWS turned the pressure on its competitor Airtel, by announcing a massive reduction to Internet Dial Up, Mobile (local) and rentals rates for all post-paid and prepaid customers.
Easytalk’ was the new international (mobile/fixed-line) calling discount plan which took a massive 30% off the total cost of all international calls a customer makes every month, provided you pay a monthly subscription fee of R60.
The following month the company introduced new peak and off-peak rates for residential, business and payphone customers making local fixed-line-to-fixed-line calls.
April: Intelvision launches telephone, Internet services.
This made Intelvision the third company to offer telephone and Internet services in Seychelles.
Intelvision said it was high time to make maximum use of infrastructure such as the cable network installed to offer additional viable services.
The three services are being offered independently which means that customers are free to subscribe to either one of the services.
May: Dawn of new mobile era.
Seychelles took another significant step towards the further modernisation and rebuilding of its telecommunication infrastructure.
As part of an International Agreement between Cable & Wireless and Nokia, a brand new GSM/GPRS mobile network was installed.
The R35 million investments initially announced in November 2005 can be modified rapidly to provide 3G services as well.
Cable & Wireless said that nearly 30,000 mobile subscribers are now using the newly installed, latest world-class mobile GSM network and prepaid systems.
June: Intelvision launches own television channel.
Seychelles' premier cable TV company announced the launch of its very own television channel with a host of interesting movies, telenovelas and music.
“Intelvision One” is distributed through its network and is available free to all Cable TV subscribers as an introductory offer. The content includes a compilation of some of the most highly acclaimed and award winning television series such as The Soprano’s, 24 and the X-Files.
New subscribers have to pay a monthly fee of only R75 to receive this channel. The subscription fee is R900.
