VICTORIA (Reuters) - India's leading mobile network, Airtel, said on Thursday it would launch third-generation (3G) cellphone services in Seychelles, making it the third country in Africa to offer this advanced technology.
Mauritius mobile phone operator Emtel launched the service in November last year, followed shortly afterward by South Africa's Vodacom.
3G technology, which allows users to surf the Web on their phones, download music and films and make video calls, has been slow to catch on in Europe and other developed markets due to costly handsets and technical glitches.
Airtel Seychelles, owned by Bharti Enterprises, said it was investing 44 million rupees in the technology to make telecoms infrastructure in Seychelles on a par with the most advanced countries in the world.
Bharti Enterprises is the parent of Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd., India's top mobile services provider with 15 million subscribers out of 68 million users.
"The new 3G and GPRS network will add a brand new dimension to the services provided to all Postpaid and Prepaid customers and roamers from all over the world," said a company statement.
"This upgrade will open a gateway to broadband Internet access, video calling, picture messaging, data cards, prepaid roaming, advanced billing system and loads of other value-added services," it added.
The statement did not say when the service would be launched.
As well as the upgrade, Airtel said it planned to add new base stations to expand its coverage to more of the Indian Ocean archipelago's 120 islands.
Airtel is Seychelles' second mobile operator and has been in operation for the last seven years, controlling around 50 percent of a market of 54,368 subscribers.
British company Cable and Wireless has around 27,000 subscribers.
The new 3G upgrade should give fast and more reliable internet access of up to 384 kbps as against 10 kbps in 2G or 30 kbps in GPRS.
Some analysts say Seychelles may be a difficult market to penetrate with some of the 80,000 population unable to afford the high cost of 3G handsets which ranges from $500 to $700.
The average cost of a normal handset in Seychelles is around $300.
