SANTO DOMINO, Dominican Republic—Telecom company Tricom said it launched digital trunking services in Panama. The iDEN network is targeted at the corporate market and builds on the company’s long-term plans to build a pan-regional Central American digital trunking network.
Tricom said it has invested about US$40 million in Panama to offer the service, primarily for spectrum and network equipment. The network will be initially available in Panama City and Colon, with other commercial and transportation corridors also having coverage.
Panama has the highest cellular average revenue per user (ARPU) in Central America, according to Tricom. The company originally planned to launch the network last year, but has faced strong opposition from BellSouth, which operates the country’s largest cellular network. BellSouth launched a legal battle to keep the Tricom service out of the country. Although Tricom received governmental approval to move forward with service, the country’s Supreme Court is still expected to rule on the issue.
“They (BellSouth) understand the services we intend to offer pose a threat, especially to the business sector,” said Miguel Guerrero, Tricom director of investor relations.
In a Global Wireless interview earlier this year, Guerrero said Tricom has scaled back its plans to offer digital trunking services in all six Central American countries and is focusing on its Panama service launch during 2002. The operator holds spectrum in Guatemala and El Salvador and is in negotiations with local partners in Honduras and El Salvador.
“Because of the current capital markets, we are cutting back,” he said. “The financing is not available, and we’re not going to over-leverage the company. We feel Central America is a natural extension of our own network. There is a lot of demand there. The capital markets are just not there.”
In Panama, Tricom is working with local partner Cellcom, an analog trunking company of which Tricom owns 51 percent. Motorola manufactures iDEN equipment.
Tricom also operates a cellular network in the Dominican Republic, competing with a network owned by Verizon Communications. The company also offers cable, paging and landline services in the United States, the Caribbean and Central America.
