NEW YORK-Diginet Americas Inc., Washington, D.C., a wireless broadband access provider in Latin America, signed a $100 million vendor supply and credit facility agreement with Lucent Technologies Inc.
The company plans to serve as the Teligent Inc. or Winstar Communications Inc. of Latin America. Under the Diveo brand, Diginet offers large corporate customers its Digital Dedicated Access and Internet Protocol Business services, which provide data speeds from 34 to 155 megabytes per second. Diginet said it views both retail and wholesale contracts as important to its growth.
“Even local incumbent wireline carriers and (Internet service providers) are a good wholesale market for us,” David R. Schmieg, president and chief executive officer, said.
“A carrier’s carrier strategy is a good way to enter markets. Mobile wireless carriers also are good customers of ours.”
In Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Panama and Peru, Diginet Americas owns operating licenses and spectrum in the 23 GHz and 38 GHz bands. Doing business under the Diveo brand, the company launched commercial service in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Bogota, Colombia, early this year. Its customers include Citibank, Electronic Data Systems, Embratel (MCI), GlobalOne, IBM Corp. and StarMedia. Late last month, Diveo launched commercial operations in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“2000 clearly will be a year of execution for us, turning on more markets in Brazil, opening (for business) in Peru and Panama, and there is a chance we will get more licenses in additional countries,” Schmieg said.
“I predict that, in Latin America, you will see more of a totally wireless environment than seen anywhere else in the world.”
Diginet Americas, which also has a $100 million vendor financing and supply agreement with Ericsson Inc., is using point-to-point technology for its commercial deployments.
“We are trialing point-to-multipoint in Argentina, but it hasn’t proven yet to be industrial strength,” Schmieg said.
In addition to the two vendor financing commitments totaling $200 million, Diginet Americas closed a first round of private equity financing of $31 million in June 1998. Last April, it closed a $70 million private equity investment agreement, which was followed in August by another in the amount of $115 million.
