Seychelles company Intelvision, which describes itself as “a 100 percent Seychellois-owned company providing TV and internet services to the local market”, is reportedly moving into the provision of mobile services in the country.
The company, the only fixed broadband and pay-TV provider in the Seychelles, has, according to local press reports, revealed that it is a planning a network rollout next year alongside vendor Huawei. The target date for rollout is June 2020.
There will be an initial focus on 4.5G services but deploying 5G technology will also be part of the plan; in fact the company says that it intends eventually to roll out a 5G network in Seychelles’ inner islands as and when 5G devices become more accessible. 5G will be introduced next June in the largest island, Mahé, beginning with the capital, Victoria, north Mahé and the airport. Over the following 12-18 months it will be extended through much of the rest of the country.
This is a significant announcement, not least because at the moment only two network operators share the mobile market of the Seychelles: Bharti Airtel and Cable and Wireless Seychelles. That said, this is a 115-island nation, with all that implies in connectivity challenges, albeit most of the population (around 94,000) live on the 44 inner islands.
