Seychelles gets 3rd submarine cable system for more competitive internet prices

 Intelvision landed the third submarine cable system in the country on Thursday. (Seychelles Nation) 

One of Seychelles' telecommunication companies, Intelvision, landed the third submarine cable system in the country on Thursday, a venture that will allow the company to provide its clients with more competitive internet prices.

Collaborating with Vodafone in landing the 2Africa cable system, Intelvision is the first privately owned telecommunication company to venture into the installation and operation of its own submarine cable system.  

After the landing of the cable at around 9.15 am on Thursday, the interim chief executive of Intelvision, Reza Jaro, said that this initiative represents a major milestone in the company's efforts to provide world-class connectivity solutions to customers in Seychelles.

"With this new cable, we will be able to set our price bar. Currently, we have to buy from the current sea submarine cable, and as such we cannot control the price. We believe that landing our own cable can revolutionise the way the internet is being used in the country today," said Jaro.

He outlined that the company understands that there is a great demand for the internet in the country today. Once work is completed, the cable is expected to go live in September this year, by which the company will reveal its new packages.

The submarine cable branch will connect Seychelles to a much larger network The 2Africa cable system. (Seychelles Nation) Photo License: CC-BY

The principal secretary at the Department of Information Communications Technology (DICT), Benjamin Choppy, said that "this is a project which I am confident will bring significant benefits to Intelvision, the local ICT sector, and to Seychelles' economy.

"This submarine cable branch will connect Seychelles to a much larger network The 2Africa cable system', which when completed, will be one of the largest submarine cable networks in the world," said Choppy.

It was on May 14, 2020, that China Mobile International, Meta (formerly known as Facebook), MTN Global Connect, Orange, Saudi Telecom Company, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, and WIOCC partnered to build 2Africa, a 45,000km long subsea cable that will serve Africa.

The system will interconnect Europe, Asia, and Africa with a design capacity of 180 Tbps. With over 600Gbps of international bandwidth available on this new cable system, Intelvision will offer a step-up with respect to connectivity speeds for households and business customers. The cable will also increase the speeds and capacity of Intelvision's existing fibre optic system.

Intelvision invested around $32 million to make the project a reality. 2Africa is the 3rd subsea cable system to land in Seychelles. The second cable landed in Seychelles in March 2022 and became operational late last year.

Intelvision is owned by Seychellois businessman Mukesh Valabjhi, who is currently facing charges before the Supreme Court of Seychelles for official corruption, theft and money laundering amounting to approximately $100 million between 1993 and 2012, as well as a separate case of possession of firearms.

The corruption and financial crimes trial will start on May 11.