Cable and Wireless upgrades line plant |22 July 2011

The current copper network the company has been using is over 25 years old and with an increasing demand for services, the company has decided to upgrade to also be able to cater for the upcoming fibre-optic cable.

With an investment forecast to reach around R250 million, the CWS Company said it is set to have Seychelles seen internationally as having modern telecom infrastructure comparable with Western Europe. This, it said, is a key consideration for investors and residents and will further support the initiative by the Seychelles Investment Board to attract foreign investors.

The line plant modernisation – which started in April this year and its Phase 1 expected to be completed by October 2011 – was officially launched yesterday at one of its new line plants at Pointe Larue.

Present for the ceremony were Vice-President Danny Faure and the CWS chief executive Charles Hammond, who said the project would not have been possible without the support of the government. 

“We previously had around 16 of the exchanges across Mahe, but today we have around 93 of the line plant stations in the country to deliver better services to clients, so they can feel a difference in the quality and reliability of their service provider,” he said.

VP Faure said CWS shares the same vision of the government, which is to put in place high-quality infrastructure that will enhance the quality of life of all its citizens.

“The past infrastructure has served all its clients for the past 25 years and we believe that this new one will serve all, not for the next 25 years, but beyond,” he said.

“This is also an example to other companies in Seychelles, that while you are making money, you should also re-invest the profit so that clients get better service and create a new environment for businesses to prosper.”

Among the other benefits of the upgraded line plants are said to be an improvement of the performance and reliability of the existing network, and create a new platform to introduce the new range of services such as high-speed broadband services and Internet Protocol television (IPTV) services as from April next year.

IPTV is a system through which television services are transmitted via internet, and the transmission of television channels via the Internet Protocol (IP), regardless of whether or not the channel in question is also accessible online.

This is currently available in places of high-bandwidth, which Seychelles is aiming to be with the coming of the submarine cable.

With an extension of the fixed-line service, many more customers will be covered, with the company aiming to eventually cover 95% of the population.

The upgrade will also provide proactive monitoring of customer service to reduce faults and increase availability of services.

Seychellois engineers working with CWS are also getting a chance of a lifetime to install and run this complex system, with the workforce being 100% local technicians and engineers.
The line plant project is expected to be completed by September next year.