Digicel bids for Fiji licence
Tuesday August 28, 2007

Caribbean-based mobile phone operator Digicel which has been vying to get a mobile phone licence to operate in Fiji for several years now, today put in its tender bid (to operate mobile phone services) amid much fanfare.

Sevens rugby legend Waisele Serevi today handed over the box containing the documents to Communications Minister Taito Waradi.

After years of "discussing" it, Government opened up the Fiji market early July by inviting expressions of interest for the "operation of public cellular mobile telephone system".

Today was the closing date for the tenders with about 15 companies showing interest, Waradi said.

In anticipation of getting a licence, Digicel has already been laying down infrastructure for over a year now and already has a staff of 40 locals as well as expatriates building the network.

Speaking to the media today, Digicel general counsel David Dillon says they would be investing about $206 million in the project and a further $US30m "because we want to make Fiji as our regional hub for the Pacific region".

When and if it gets its licence to operate, it would immediately provide 80 per cent coverage, Dillion says.

"We will have 80 per cent coverage on day one and moving towards 95 per cent coverage over two years."

Asked the reason and the risks behind putting in the infrastructure even before getting a licence, Dillon says Digicel takes a commercial risk of building a network in advance of being granted. "And we thought we would take the risk here. We are very confident of our bid"

He says they have done the same in Papua New Guinea. "We started building in PNG in September and we got our licence in March with 150,000 subscribers after four weeks."

He denied that there had been any problems in PNG saying the courts have confirmed Digicel's licence.

Digicel says they would be servicing areas of Fiji that had never been serviced or have been experiencing poor quality of coverage.

He claimed that their voice quality would be crystal clear, the service portfolio "unbeatable" and would be bringing "fantastic choice" to the customer.

The company is hoping to capture at least 60 per cent of the market once it starts operating.

Dillion says they would be providing over 250 jobs locally once it starts operating and more later.

He confirmed that the company would be paying a licence fee to operate in the market but would not reveal a figure.

The company hopes to receive a mobile licence by late September or early October.