Interconnection rates by April 18

Addressing a news conference at Digicel’s corporate headquarters at the Ansa McAl Centre in Port-of-Spain yesterday, O’Brien said he was overjoyed that Digicel’s six-year wait to do business in TT was over, and that the group believed that this country could serve as a platform to launch business ventures into other parts of the region.

Claiming that TSTT has tried everything to stop Digicel from entering the local market, O’Brien said the unprecedented levels of consumer interest in Digicel’s phones over the last few days have surpassed the group’s projections for sales in TT and signalled the end of TSTT’s 26-year monopoly over the local telecom sector.

Digicel (TT) CEO Stephen Brewer said “tens of thousands” of persons have signed up with the company over the last few days.

However neither Brewer nor O’Brien could give any details as to the exact number of local mobile phone customers that have signed up with Digicel over the last week, or the quantum of revenues that the company earned over this period. O’Brien said it was still “early days” to give specific figures in either area.

Stating that the interim interconnection rates set by the Telecom Authority of TT’s (TATT) arbitration panel were favourable to all parties concerned, O’Brien said the panel is expected to announce the final rates by April 18 and he was confident that those rates would satisfy the parties involved, including the population.

Brewer declined to say whether Digicel would be giving people a free mobile phone for their TSTT phone but indicated that the population can expect to see several interesting offers in the coming weeks. On new investments, O’Brien said Digicel was currently looking at the French Caribbean and Western Samoa in the Pacific Ocean.