Andrew Massias, chief executive of Island Networks, says his company will take on two new regional markets this year. - File

Telecommunications provider Island Networks Limited has a $500 million plan to expand the company, domestically and regionally, as it homes in on a bigger slice of the data services market.

Chief executive officer Andrew Massias told Wednesday Business that the monies to be spent over three years to 2010, would finance in Jamaica "new infrastructure in very remote areas, customer premise equipment and added operating costs."

Massias said the programme would be financed with a mix of debt and equity, adding, however that attempts at raising capital in Jamaica was so far unsuccessful.

"We have a foreign option that we will move to execute within 30 days," he said on Tuesday.

But the company is also looking to do business with a local investor in a addition to its unnamed foreign partner.

Market Doubled

On Monday, INL said it had more than doubled its market from six to 13 per cent over the past year on the back of demand from the banking and insurance sectors seeking secure platforms for client accounts.

It reached break-even on its operations in the first quarter of 2007, Massias said.

He refused to divulge information on his margins, but said it was not uncommon for a company like INL to gross revenues of $200 million to $600 million per year in its start-up period, with the right growth dynamics.

But the company also signalled it was far not satisfied with the size of the business it now operates, and plans to grow share to 22 per cent by 2010. Within that time it also hopes to have secured 9.0 per cent of the broader telecoms market.

Expansion

Right now, the company said it has second place in data services behind Cable and Wireless Jamaica, which is estimated to have as much as 88 per cent of the market, while Digicel has a tiny portion, as does Flow.

The numbers add up to more than 100 per cent, but Massias says that's because as much as 50 per cent of customers have more than one carrier.

Massias, who co-owns the business with brother William Massias, said during the course of this year INL will enter two new Caribbean countries, having previously expanded to Puerto Rico a year and a half ago.

That office is run by INL business partner and chief operating officer Felipe Hernandez.

INL is a three-year-old company in which its principals, Andrew and brother William Massias of Capital Solutions, "with assistance from private investors", have poured $400 million since 2004 to build a Multiple Protocol Label Switching (PMLS) network that offers businesses a secure wireless system to migrate data.

INL has also introduced BRANCHconnect, developed by the company a year ago and marketed as a branch office communication solution, saying the system was now being utilised as a primary data service for many of its clients

" ... We are seeing a strong desire to migrate intra-office communi-cations across the same medium," said the INL chief executive.

"This is the real advantage that MPLS technology brings to the market."

Islandwide coverage

Island Network has laid claim to a market of more than 100 of Jamaica's big businesses, including blue chip companies, in the banking, insurance, hospitality and manufacturing sectors.

The INL network, which offers both telephone and Internet connectivity, currently boasts islandwide coverage with "60 points of presence".

Massias said the company would stay focused on the corporate market, adding that there were "no immediate plans" to target the consumer segment.

Digicel's WiMAX is similarly corporate-focused, for now, but Massias said the competition would not dissuade INL from executing its business strategy.

lavern.clarke@gleanerjm.com