Wireless Federation

Digicel, the largest mobile operator in the Caribbean and new entrant to the Central American market, today launched services in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) — its 25th market in the Caribbean and Central America and 30th market world-wide. With an investment of US$17 million, Digicel introduces a new era of choice and competition for mobile customers in BVI.
With a population of 23,000 and mobile penetration at an estimated 90 percent, Digicel’s investment in BVI focuses on building a brand new state-of-the-art network that provides coverage to 98 percent of the population. The new network is supported by 24/7customer care, first-to-market innovations such as self-service top up machines with 24-hour access and online bill payment, as well as a wide range of affordable handsets.
“We are delighted to launch in the British Virgin Islands and are looking forward to demonstrating to customers what being with the Bigger, Better Network means,” Colm Delves, Digicel Group CEO, said of today’s launch. “I would like to thank the Government for all of its assistance with our entrance to this market. As the third entrant, we will drive competition for the good of consumers by providing the best coverage, the best care and the best value to the people of this country. This is an exciting time for us both here in BVI — and more widely — as we continue to expand our global presence and delight customers with what we do and how we do it.”
Digicel BVI is led by Alan Bates, who has worked with Digicel since 2003. Serving as Head of Sales and Distribution for the Dutch Caribbean region and Sales Director for Digicel Bermuda, Bates has played an instrumental role in leading the company’s operations to the number one position in the market.
With a thriving tourism and financial services industry, BVI has one of the most prosperous economies in the Caribbean. BVI covers a group of 16 inhabited and more than 20 uninhabited islands, with the main islands being Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Jost van Dyke and Anegada.

ABOUT DIGICEL GROUP
Since its launch in 2001, Digicel has become the largest wireless telecommunications operator in the Caribbean with more than six million customers. After seven years, Digicel is renowned for competitive rates, unbeatable coverage, superior customer care, a wide variety of products and services and state-of-the-art handsets. By offering innovative wireless services and community support, Digicel has become a leading brand in the Caribbean and has placed the region at the cutting-edge of wireless communications — the company is also a new entrant to the Central American market.
Digicel is incorporated in Bermuda and now has operations in 25 markets, including Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Curacao, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, El Salvador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and Turks & Caicos. With a launch planned imminently in Panama, Digicel expects to be in 26 markets by the end of the year. The Caribbean company also has coverage in St. Martin and St. Barths.
Digicel is the lead sponsor of Caribbean sports teams including the West Indies Cricket Team and Special Olympics teams and is title sponsor of the Digicel Caribbean Football Union Cup and the Copa De Naciones, the Caribbean and Central American qualifiers to the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Visit www.digicelgroup.com for more information on Digicel.

About Wireless Federation

Wireless Federation is an industry research conglomerate headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The mandate of the Wireless Federation is to provide its members and customers industry knowledge that can further enhance their understanding of the wireless industry. Wireless Federation conducts bespoke research and produces boxed reports in collabaration with Industry Bodies, Telecom Operators for Issues that revolve around ARPU, CHURN and Loyalty.
They have been associated with more than 225 mobile operators globally to set their Pricing/ Tariff Strategies, Go-To-Market Strategies for Mobile Advertising, Mobile Payments, Cutting VAS among others amongst 59 countries globally.

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Telefonica Spain signs 15-year contract, worth $206 million, with Ecuadorian government to provide mobile phone service across the nation. Telefonica plans an investment of $400 million for the upgradation of networks and services such as 3G. In September 2007, it was America Movil SAB which signed the same contract for $480 million.
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The Latin American mobile operator Digicel launches its operations officially in Honduras with an investment of $450Mn. The investment also includes the amount it paid for Honduras’ fourth mobile license which is $80.1Mn, says Digicel Honduras’ CEO Miguel García.
According to CEO García, Digicel aims to have a subscriber base of 5,000 by year-end and to become country’s second largest mobile operator within a year of launching.
According to an unofficial statement the operator also additionally aims to take country’s mobile penetration to 80% which stands at 60% presently.
“Honduras is a very exciting market for us as it allows us to strengthen our presence in Central America. With a population of close to 7.6mn and mobile penetration at just 60%, there is huge potential for growth in this mobile market and we look forward to becoming a strong competitor,” the spokesperson said.

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True Move, Thailand, plans to invest strongly in 3G mobile broadband to be launched Q2′09. According to the operator it wouldn’t cut down on the investment in its 3G networks development.
“We will be pinning our hopes on 3G mobile service as we see it as a great business opportunity to enhance our business model in convergence,” says CEO True Move, Supachai Chearavanont.
According to Supachai, the telco will maintain its targets for the number of new subscribers of between three to five million this year, and that the amount of investment in 2009 would be about the same as in 2008.

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Telefonia Dialog, presents its new business strategy wherein it plans an investment of $3.94Mn in next seven years. “These should increase the value of our company owned by  KGHM. In 2015, Dialog should be worth $3.94Mn”, Piotr Mazurkiewicz, the company CEO said.
The operator wants to raise $49.43Mn in selling 25% of newly issued shares in the second half of 2009, which is rist taking and will make the operator incur losses. But still the operators want to invest $297.17Mn in next three years. This means that the company will lack PLN 321m. Half of this amount should be raised in a credit, the other half – in the IPO which has been delayed many times already.
“We shift it till March 2010 but it won’t disturb our strategy”, Tomasz Szelag, deputy CEO of the company explained.
This year, the company plans PLN 90m of EBITDA against PLN 547m of sales. In 2015, EBITDA should amount to PLN 263m against PLN 901m of sales.

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Nigeria, where Zain has invested about $3billion in the last two years. Group Corporate Communication Director for Africa, Mr. Nwanbu Wanedeva, states that forthcoming Zain/MTV Base Pan-African award coming up September in Abuja. Wanedeva further said that company  had invested $12 billion in Africa, stressing that out of this, $3 billion, the highest for any country, was invested in Nigeria. Constant change of name by the company was due to bringing in of new investors, Wanedeva added. Discussing about the poor network he said that the company was doing a lot to improve the situation, stressing that last year alone, the company erected about 120 base stations in Nigeria.

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A pair of investment firms have agreed to acquire Alltel Corp., the fifth-biggest U.S. wireless  company and owner of the nation’s largest geographic network, in a deal worth $24.8 billion (EU18.4 billion).
The telecommunications company announced Sunday that it had signed an agreement to be acquired by TPG Capital, formerly Texas Pacific Group, and GS Capital Partners, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs. The investors also agreed to take on Alltel’s $2.7 billion (EU2 billion) in debt.

“This transaction delivers substantial and certain value to our shareholders while providing the company with long-term partners who share our commitment to our customers, employees and the communities we serve,” Alltel CEO Scott Ford said in a statement.

“This transaction also ensures our customers can continue to rely on Alltel to deliver high-quality service and leading edge products and services.”

The deal, if approved by shareholders and regulators, is expected to close during the fourth quarter of this year or the first three months of 2008, Alltel said.

Alltel has about 12 million cell-phone customers, mainly in the South, West and Midwest. That ranks it fifth in number of customers, after Cingular, Verizon , Sprint and T-Mobile, but the company’s service “footprint” is larger than any of those rivals, Ford said.

The agreement calls for the two investment firms to acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Alltel for US$71.50 per share in cash. According to Alltel, that represents a 23 percent premium over Alltel’s share price before word of a possible buyout first appeared in the media Dec. 29.

Trading in Alltel’s stock closed Friday at $65.21, down 14 cents from the day before. The per share buyout price would represent a premium of only about 10 percent over Friday’s share price.

Ford said in a telephone interview that the buyout price is “a 10 percent premium over a price that clearly anticipated this outcome” after scores of articles had been written about Alltel’s prospects in the first months of this year.

The announcement was the second in a week of a buyout of a corporation based at Little Rock to be taken private by the new owners. On Wednesday, data-management firm Acxiom Corp. announced it was to be acquired in a buyout worth about $2.25 billion (EU1.67 billion).

Ford said in the phone interview that the Alltel deal resulted from “a very thoughtful, very careful, very thorough review” over several months by the Alltel board of the best options for assuring the company would be able to continue serving well both its customers and its shareholders.

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