Intelvision launches telephone, internet services |19 April 2006

This makes Intelvision the third company to offer telephone and internet services in the country.

The company's assistant marketing manager, Sabrina Didon, said investment in the new services stemmed from increasing demand from customers, adding that it was also high time Intelvision makes 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.

Intelvision, Ms Didon said, has collaborated with the foremost market leader Cisco to give customers "the best technology in telecommunications."

The company operates on an advanced Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) cable network, which is said to be the best in the Africa region. "The most redeemed feature that this technology gives you is the vast reduction in telephone and internet charges," Ms Didon said.

The network enables Intelvision to offer telephone services using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), a technology that has revolutionised the telecom industry over the last decade.

According to Ms Didon the average fixed line makes seventy percent of its calls to mobiles, adding that currently the charges from fixed line to mobile are high.

With the Intelvision fixed line telephone service, customers are charged just R1.00 per minute for calls made to mobiles, 50 cents per three minutes at any time for calls made to other fixed lines, R2.00 per minute for calls made to outer islands and R3.90 per minute for international calls.

The telephone services being offered include call waiting, call forwarding, caller ID, block unwanted calls, wake up call, voicemail and three-way calling.

Ms Didon said the prices revealed are those that would be applied and there would be no "hidden charges."

Intelvision is also offering "always" online high speed Internet at what it said "to be the most affordable prices in Seychelles," with a residential package of up to 256 kilobytes per hour (kbps) starting from R250. 
According to Ms Didon, the internet speed being offered is 50 times faster than traditional dial-up connection and internet users will not require a telephone to go on-line.

For both the telephone and internet services customers can choose from either a residential or business package depending on their budget and requirements.

The provision of telephone and internet service will require the setting up of an 'EMTA,' an equipment with cable modem that enables digital transmission. The EMTA without back-up battery can be purchased at R480. The four-hour battery back-up is R250.

For the telephone service, a customer can continue using their existing telephone, or buy a digitally enhanced cordless phone at R250 from Intelvision or a caller ID at R75.

New clients are being asked to bring along their identity cards and parcel number. Ms Didon said that with a parcel number it is easier for the company, through its GIS system (Geographical Information System), to locate if network coverage has reached the residential area.

In the meantime the company is pushing ahead with plans to improve coverage of the whole country.