Denis O'Brien, founder of Digicel. - File

Digicel has landed a broadband licence in Honduras to roll out service on a 2.5 gigahertz spectrum to eight zones.

The company said it paid US$2 million for the licence and will be rolling out its WiMAX technology in "the eight most densely populated areas of Honduras", covering nearly 60 per cent of the country's population of 7.6 million.

The spectrum was allocated under competitive bid, with Digicel going head to head with America Movil/Claro, Autoconsa, Axioma Empresarial, Lumelsa and Millicom/Tigo.

Plans for wimax in ja

The company already offers WiMAX to a consumer market in the Cayman Islands, and plans to roll out a similar service in Jamaica, once the Spectrum Management Authority wraps up its auction and allocates the licences.

Its market entry strategy includes cheap laptops as a hook for customers, a replication of the strategy it employed with mobile phones when founder Denis O'Brien launched the company in Jamaica in 2001.

"WiMAX not only delivers a wireless broadband Internet service comparable to what users are accustomed to getting in the office or at home, but also integrates high-speed voice and data serving up a fast, cost-efficient and seamless wireless mobile communications experience," said Digicel.

Corporate clients

In Jamaica, it already offers broadband to corporate clients.

Digicel, since last year, has been trumpeting the responses from Cayman to the service, saying wireless broadband subscriber numbers went way above expectations.

The company points to the current Telecom Application Report 2008, which in its five-year outlook, says the demand for WiMAX was expected to grow 198 per cent by 2012.

"In other markets where we've rolled out WiMAX services, the response has been fantastic," said Miguel Garcia, CEO, Digicel Honduras, at the August 1 announcement of the new licence.

"We're looking forward to delighting our customers in Honduras in a similar way."

business@gleanerjm.com