British Virgin Islands
Tourism News

Digicel furthers BVI initiative on cellular tower sharing
 
Wednesday, July 16, 2008  

ROAD TOWN, BVI: Digicel BVI Ltd has successfully completed negotiations with CCT Global Communications to co-locate on nine cellular sites in the British Virgin Islands and has identified a further 13 sites which have the potential for co-location.

As requested by Minister of Communications and Works, Julian Fraser, telecommunications providers here met again to come to an agreement on tower sharing.

Fraser convened a meeting last Tuesday July 8 with the three licensed mobile telecommunications providers, Cable and Wireless (BVI) Ltd, CCT Global Communications and Digicel (BVI) Ltd, where it was agreed that it is in the best interest of the territory to share towers wherever possible.

The agreement followed an announcement by government last month to put a freeze on the erection of cellular towers in the territory until further notice, in response to concerns expressed by the public about health hazards and aesthetic issues especially in residential areas and school districts.

Speaking after today’s meeting, Chief Executive Officer, Digicel BVI, Alan Bates, said the meeting was very successful, despite the fact that the Cable & Wireless CEO did not attend stating that he had a scheduling conflict and was unable to clear his calendar.

“We received word late last night from Cable & Wireless that their officials were unavailable, however, Digicel and CCT went ahead with the meeting as per Minister Fraser’s instructions to arrive at a quick resolution to this issue,” Bates said. “Needless to say, we are very disappointed that the other operator did not come to the meeting, for which we all had adequate notice and for which the Minister had cleared his calendar for an entire day to facilitate.”

The Digicel CEO said in respect of Minister Fraser’s mandate, Digicel carefully prepared for this meeting to ensure that there was a positive outcome. “I am therefore pleased to report that Digicel has successfully concluded arrangements with CCT to co-locate on nine (9) towers as of today’s date, with a further 13 under technical consideration,” he said.

The providers are required to officially submit to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission TRC on Wednesday July 16, the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting for consideration at the planned meeting by the TRC on Friday July 18, 2008

Bates reiterated that “all towers that will be constructed by Digicel will be provisioned to accommodate all three operators.”