Airtel launches new telecommunication tower | 07 September 2019

The telecommunication tower resembles a palm tree

The residence of Anse François at Pointe Larue can no longer complain about poor cell service as Airtel has now launched its new telecommunication tower in the area yesterday morning.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by member of the National Assembly of Pointe Larue Jude Valmont, the chief executive officer of Airtel, Amadou Dina and the principal secretary of the department of information and communication technology (DICT), Benjamin Choppy.

The tower stands at a height of 30 metres, however many people could confuse it for a palm tree as it has been designed to blend in with the natural environment as stated by the Airtel boss in his opening address.

“It has been quite a while that we have been receiving complaints from the community of Anse François about the quality of the network service, together with the planning authority, the department of ICT and the MNA of Pointe Larue we have worked extensively to resolve this issue,” said Mr Dina.

He added that it was a long battle to start the development of the cell tower as it required several approvals from key partners as well as identifying a suitable area to construct the tower.

Mr Dina ended by telling the residents of Pointe Larue especially those of Anse François to enjoy the amazing 4G speed that they will be receiving through the tower.

On his part, honourable Valmont thanked Airtel on behalf of his constituents.

“For a while, we have experienced network problems and we have worked hard to make sure that the community is covered. We have already started seeing a big difference in the quality of network, so we are very happy that Airtel has listened to our call and DICT has supported the community,” said honourable Valmont.

He concluded by telling the residents to enjoy the network as “we are now moving into the future.”

Mr Choppy said that DICT has the role as regulator in the telecommunication sector, and in this instance they were approached by the MNA of the district regarding network coverage issues.

He added that after consulting with telecommunication operators, they worked on finding a solution to solve the problem.

The tower is owned by Airtel, however other telecommunication companies can use it to send out their signals under the tower sharing policy.

Work began on the tower in 2016 and it has cost US $350,000. Currently the Anse François tower is only one out of four towers that have been constructed in Seychelles.

The others are located at Morne Blanc, and at Baie St Anne and Pointe Zangiy on Praslin. These three other towers are set to be operational in the coming weeks.