(Seychelles News Agency) - Seychelles has seen a significant increase in internet usage over the last couple of years as service providers offer better speed packages at more affordable prices.

As of June 30, the amount of traffic data observed from April to June, was 17,644,347 Gigabytes (GB), an increase of nine percent from the previous quarter.

Patrick Moustache, the director of the Seychelles Communications Regulatory Authority (SCRA), said that compared to the same period last year, there has been an increase of 43 percent in data consumption. This is attributed to faster speeds and unlimited packages being offered by local service providers.

"If the size of the road, which is the bandwidth is not increased, the number of cars, or data in this case, will also not increase. So the more bandwidth is increased, the more data will be able to pass through, meaning more people will be able to use it a high speed," Moustache explained.

According to the statistics provided by the SCRA, since June 2020, internet traffic data has increased by a huge 254 percent, to its current value, from only 4,989,210 GB. The amount of international internet bandwidth purchased by service providers has increased from 17.870 megabytes per second (Mbps), in 2020 to 221,774 Mbps in June 2024.

The increase in data consumption is on par with the number of internet subscriptions in the country, which has also increased significantly over the last five years, rising from 112,334 in 2020 to 139,850 in June 2024.

"It should be noted these statistics do not represent the number of homes with internet subscriptions though, because some houses can have multiple subscriptions, while others may not have any subscription at all," explained Moustache.

He explained that the way people use the internet has also shifted. Before people used to download movies for example, but nowadays, with faster speeds, people are streaming more.

"With capped internet, people were more responsible with their data, where for example, if someone was watching a movie on Netflix, they would turn it off if they were doing something else, but with unlimited internet, now people can keep the streaming movie on, even when they are not watching it, while there could also be other people using data on other devices, leading to more traffic," said Moustache.

At the moment there are three main internet service providers in Seychelles, Cable & Wireless, Airtel, and Intelvision, with all offering varying internet packages to their clients.

Despite these better packages on offer, the SCRA is urging members of the public to use their internet more responsibly, to ensure that everyone can enjoy their services as intended.

"People may tend to abuse the internet usage, which in turn can lead to internet service providers, having to purchase increased bandwidth, and that can then lead to price increase," said Moustache.

He said for example clients can turn off streaming movies if they are not watching them and avoid excessive downloading, especially in peak hours, as that can lead to a degradation of the service for others.