Thursday 17th July 2014 – Kingston, Jamaica: Digicel today announced that it has reached an agreement with Telstar Cable Limited to acquire its cable and fibre network in Jamaica.
Telstar provides cable TV, broadband and telephony services. On completion, which is subject to approval by the Broadcasting Commission, Digicel will invest significantly in the network to increase coverage and further expand the products, services and content available to cable customers in Jamaica.
Cable TV and Broadband
The acquisition will be Digicel’s fourth Caribbean cable acquisition in the last number of months and will increase its cable footprint to six markets:
Turks and Caicos Islands, April 2014: Digicel acquired WIV Cable TV in the Turks and Caicos Islands and its sister company, TCT, which offers broadband services.
Dominica, February 2014: SAT Telecommunications provides a range of TV, telephony and broadband internet services to residential and business customers in Dominica.
Anguilla, Nevis and Montserrat, November 2013: Digicel acquired Caribbean Cable Communications Holding Ltd, a cable TV and internet service provider in Anguilla, Nevis and Montserrat.
Major Fibre Build-Outs
Digicel has also been investing heavily in greenfield fibre build-outs having broken ground on next-generation fibre networks in Barbados, Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad. This investment in fibre reflects the company’s ongoing focus on business solutions which has shown almost 40% year on year growth in revenues. These fibre builds are nearing completion and pre-selling of the services has already commenced.
Submarine Fibre Optic Acquisition
In order to drive the delivery of multimedia content -as well as improve offerings for mobile data services and business solutions – Digicel has also secured significant off-island sub-sea fibre bandwidth. In December 2013, Digicel entered into a share and asset purchase agreement with Global Caribbean Fibre to acquire certain submarine fibre assets in the Eastern Caribbean region. This deal will provide Digicel with a wholly-owned submarine fibre optic cable network of approximately 2,100km providing capacity from Trinidad to Guadeloupe. The proposed transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the coming weeks.
Digicel Group CEO, Colm Delves, comments: “We are investing heavily in cable TV, content and fibre across our markets to ensure that Digicel is positioned at the forefront of a data intensive world where our customers are able to enjoy multimedia experiences on multiple devices and avail of advanced solutions for their businesses. We look forward to expanding our footprint further in this space in the coming year through a combination of acquisitions and greenfield builds.”
About Digicel
Digicel Group is a leading global communications provider with operations in 32 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and Asia Pacific. After 13 years of operation, total investment to date stands at over US$5 billion worldwide. The company is renowned for delivering best value, best service and best network.
Digicel is the lead sponsor of Caribbean, Central American and Pacific sports teams, including the Special Olympics teams throughout these regions. Digicel sponsors the West Indies cricket team and is also the title sponsor of the Caribbean Premier League. In the Pacific, Digicel is the proud sponsor of several national rugby teams and also sponsors the Vanuatu cricket team.
Digicel also runs a host of community-based initiatives across its markets and has set up Digicel Foundations in Haiti, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea and Trinidad and Tobago which focus on educational, cultural and social development programmes.