"We're in, building towers in Samoa and we're hoping to launch in October there, we have a team on the ground," Digicel chairman Denis O'Brien told the Business Observer last Thursday.  "In Fiji, we're assembling sites and we're moving on now to Papau New Guinea where we're going to drop in a roll-out team."

The major chunk of the investment - US$265 million - is being spent in Fiji under a 15-year development plan.  But O'Brien is facing resistance there from a businessman who, after organising a boardroom coup, took control of Digicel Pacific Ltd's joint venture partner - Ba Provincial Holdings.

According to media reports out of Fiji, the businessman, Ratu Tevita Momoedonu, has written to Telecommunications Minister Isireli Leweniqila warning the government to revoke the provisional licence granted to Digicel which he (Ratu Tevita) has accused of splitting the indigenous people of Ba.

"We have voiced our concerns to you in that Digicel is single-handedly splitting the vanua [people] of Ba," Ratu Tevita wrote.  "This will be devastating for the yasana [people] and we will not be able to contain any subsequent bloodshed."

The Business Observer was unable to ascertain the motive for Ratu Tevita's objection, and last week O'Brien shrugged off his comments as hyperbole.  "A lot of that is just beating the drum a bit, little bit o' rhetoric," the Irish entrepreneur told the Business Observer.  "It's just a different way of communicating.  But we're not splitting anybody.  We're just trying to build a mobile business in Fiji."

Added O'Brien: "It doesn't in any way stop us from going into the market.  We'll be going regardless.  The government is just at the moment tidying up the legislation to issue the licence.  They told us we have a licence, so they are just putting the legislation before the Parliament."

O'Brien said that given the development, Digicel Pacific could either continue the deal with Ba Holdings or go into partnership with another Fijian company.  Digicel Pacific's plan, he said, is to use either Fiji or Samoa as a hub for a seamless network in the South Pacific.

"We hope to get maybe 10 licences up and running there over the next couple of years - across all the islands," said O'Brien.  The South Pacific, with approximately 20,000 islands, is regarded as a lucrative market for mobile telephony.  But O'Brien insists that the region is being under-served by main provider Vodafone which, he said, has only about 20 per cent penetration in Fiji, 15 per cent in Samoa and one per cent in Papau New Guinea.

"Those kinds of opportunities for a company like Digicel coming out of Jamaica are huge," said O'Brien.  "Because.  The island culture of Samoa or Fiji is very similar to what we have experienced here, and I have to say that probably the reason why we got the licences is because we came from Jamaica."

He heaped praise on his business development team, led by Ken Mason, Lisa Lewis and Fabian Williams, who, he said, were able to explain very clearly to the governments what Digicel did in Jamaica and in other Caribbean countries to develop the telecoms market.  Since launching service in Jamaica in 2001, Digicel Caribbean has increased cell phone penetration from approximately four per cent to more than 82 per cent of the island's 2.7 million population, basically by slashing prices on handsets and calls.

Within its first 100 days of operation, the company claimed it had 100,000 subscribers.  The firm has moved into the wider Caribbean and now offers service in 20 countries to 2.6 million subscribers.  Its investment in the region totals US$1.2 billion and the company currently employs 2,000 people.

Last week, Colm Delves, Digicel's group CEO, said they have seconded five of their Jamaican employees to the South Pacific.  "These are people who are actually training staff there in the customer care side," Delves told the Business Observer.

Added O'Brien, "It's similar to what we did in Haiti, because in Haiti that whole business was created by Jamaican managers from Digicel here."

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