STEPHEN BREWER
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP):
DIGICEL, JAMAICA-BASED mobile telephone company, will start selling service in Trinidad after months of delays over connection issues, the company's top officer in the country said Sunday.
Stephen Brewer, CEO of Digicel Trinidad, said he expects local provider Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago, or TSTT, will create obstacles to connecting calls to his network, but that the company is nevertheless launching this week. Jointly owned by the government and British mobile provider Cable and Wireless PLC, TSTT had for years been the only provider in the country.
Digicel has been trying to break into Trinidad's market since June, when it won a licence to provide cellular service in the twin-island Caribbean nation of 1.3 million people. Brewer said TSTT had been slow to set up interconnectivity.
On Friday, Trinidad's telecommunications authority said an agreement had been reached, giving Digicel the green light to move forward. But Brewer would not say exactly when they would launch this week. "Whichever day we choose, TSTT will try and spoil it," he said.
Amoy Van Lowe, TSTT's head of marketing and communications, denied that.
NOTHING UNDERHANDED
"We have nothing underhanded planned," Van Lowe said. "We are ready to compete based on prices and service."
The cellphone war between the two companies has been highly visible across the country. During carnival season in February, Digicel's crimson flags and TSTT's light green 'bMobile' ads were plastered to roving music trucks and dangled from light posts. Trinidad's popular dance music, soca, was also brought into the battle, as each company hired a slew of singers in their media blitz.
Fast-growing Digicel has acquired Cingular Wireless LLC's operations in Anguilla, Bermuda, Dominica and St. Kitts as part of its Caribbean expansion. It also provides service in Aruba, Barbados, the Cayman Islands, Curacao, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Lucia and St. Vincent.
On Friday, Digicel began providing service in Antigua and the company announced yesterday that it has been granted a license to establish a GSM cellular network in the newly liberalized market of Turks and Caicos.
This most recent license positions Digicel with operations in 16 Caribbean markets, with an imminent launch in Haiti.
