Atlas launches "Skyway" high-speed wireless broadband

Atlas Skyway team gearing up to provide quality wireless broadband access to Seychelles

Atlas, Seychelles' premier internet service provider (ISP), is today launching "Skyway", its new high-speed broadband wireless internet service. 

 "Skyway" will provide high-speed fixed wireless access to homes and businesses on Mahe, Praslin, La Digue, Silhouette, North island, Ste Anne island, Cerf island and other marine park islands.

With speeds ranging from 128Kbps (Kilobytes per second) to 10Mbps (Megabytes per second), this new reliable service will provide downloads that are 50 to 500 times faster than current dial-up modems and will no doubt satisfy even the most hard-core internet users.

Coverage areas for the Skyway service includes the airport to North East Point, the greater Victoria and surrounding areas such as Mont Buxton, Bel Air, Bel Eau, Mont Fleuri, Providence, as well as the entire northern area of Mahe consisting of Beau Vallon, Bel Ombre and Glacis districts.   

After months of research and testing of equipment, Atlas has chosen Motorola as the supplier of choice for its Skyway project and according to a spokesperson of the company, this robust equipment has already proven to be cost-effective and the most reliable broadband wireless solution for Seychelles. 

"Today is a very special day for internet users in Seychelles," Marc Houareau, Atlas' chairman, told Business Nation.

"Customers now have access to the most advanced, secure, reliable and affordable wireless broadband technology in the world, part of the service that is aligned with customer expectations, as well as with business goals to make companies grow and build a competitive advantage. Our ATLAS Skyway service will change forever the way Seychelles internet users use the information highway,” Mr Houareau added.

"The choice of Motorola, a multi-billion dollar company, was easy because this company has been at the forefront of wireless development since the 1940s and is currently the leader in the wireless field," he said, adding that the same Motorola wireless solution has been deployed in large cities such as Houston, Los Angeles and New York in the United States as well as in other European and Asian cities.

"The Skyway system, Mr Houareau explained, operates in a frequency range which will ensure that there is absolutely zero interference with other wireless equipment deployed in Seychelles." 

With the Skyway product, the customer will now experience not only a high-speed broadband access, but they will no longer have to put up with disconnections due to bad telephone connections, Mr Houareau pointed out. 

In order to better meet the specific market needs, Atlas has developed two types of packages designed at targeting the residential and business market segments. 

Launched under the brand names of "Skyway Home" and "Skyway Office", each package offers various plans that have been specifically designed to address the needs of most customers, ranging from home offices to multi-national corporations and for the individual or family who want to bring more fun and excitement to their homes. 

The Atlas Skyway Home starts at only R450 per month and offers a minimum of 128 kilo bits per second (kbps) access, 24-hour online service and no data download restriction.

For the Skyway Office, Atlas can provide up to 10Mbps for offices with a large number of employees.  Monthly rates start at R550 for an entry level package designed for one to two users.

Businesses can start the Skyway service with a minimum guaranteed speed and increase as and when the need arises.  But the key is a fixed fee for the service, regardless of the amount of data that is downloaded, the number of employees online and the amount of time users stay online.

Atlas' business development manager Gilbert Lebon said that the service was different to what was being offered by other service providers, whereby there was a limit to the amount of data one can download and there are also extra charges for such downloads. 

"Our fees are fixed and there are no surprise charges when your bill arrives," Mr Lebon asserted. 

With Skyway, companies and organisations with more than one point of presence, such as banks, schools, police stations and health centres, will be able to extend their central computer network and internet access to other remote branches located on Mahe, Praslin, La Digue or on any other inner islands using a cost-effective wireless Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution.  

"This is a first for Seychelles and we are quite excited about providing services to the two most populated islands after Mahe," Mr Lebon commented, adding that "the fees for Praslin and La Digue will be the same as for Mahe, and quality and speed of service will be exactly the same." 

"The Atlas Skyway product is reliable, secure and most of all, the speed is phenomenal," he said. 

"A customer can stay connected 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without any degradation of service speeds, and more importantly, there will be no extra charges such as phone line or overtime charges. It means that homes and businesses can now set a fixed budget for their internet connection, depending of course on the speed of service required, " Mr Lebon explained.

Moreover, he said, with Atlas Skyway, "Seychelles will get 'quality service' that has been lacking on the market and this means a blend of high speed, reliability, stability and security supported by consistent service level agreements."

Atlas also plans to deploy more antennas in the south of Mahe within the next six months and the whole of Mahe is expected to be covered by the end of 2004.

"Today, several homes in south Mahe don't have access to fixed telephone services and are unable to connect to the internet, but with the Skyway product, we will now be able to reach these homes," Mr Lebon explained. 

Atlas can also boast to be the first provider of wireless “hotspots” in Seychelles with deployment of the technology at the Wharf Hotel & Marina and at the Seychelles International Airport. 

"Hotspots" are special zones that have wireless Local Area Network (LAN) coverage.  Consequently, any user with an Atlas account and a wireless-ready PC or notebook will be able to access the internet when they are in the "hotspot" area.

To order the Skyway service, customers must contact Atlas and arrange for a site survey. Once engineers have confirmed that the wireless signal can be provided to the applicant's premises, a small radio antenna will be fitted to the roof of the building and the service will begin immediately. All the customer needs is a PC or notebook with a free Ethernet card slot and Windows Operating system.  Atlas will provide the radio antenna and a reflector if necessary on a rental or outright purchase basis, and will also be responsible for the installation and setting up of the equipment.

Other services to complement the Skyway wireless products include dial-up back-up services, multiple email addresses and server space, 24-hour customer support services, committed information rate (CIR) and service level agreements (SLAs). 

Unlike other systems, the Skyway product is not affected whatsoever by adverse weather such as torrential rains or fog. 

The technology also provides for the most secure wireless transmissions, since the encryption is proprietary and not open like wireless LAN technologies such as Wi-Fi or 802.11x.  It is not possible to intercept over-the-air traffic since the data is encoded, authenticated and encrypted. 

"After-sales service is extremely important for us and our team of 12 Atlas employees are available day and night to respond to our customers' needs," Atlas’ systems manager Muditha Gunatilake told Business Nation.

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