BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Digicel paid US$2.5 million for a license in Guatemala to allow the company to operate GSM technology on 900 MHz spectrum. The company foresees an investment of US$30 million to start to offer its services toward the end of the year.
Although Digicel has the same name as the company currently operating in Jamaica and other countries in Central America and the Caribbean, in this case, Digicel is a capital company from El Salvador and the United States, which has been providing cellular telephony in El Salvador since last year. In El Salvador, Digicel has a 10-percent market penetration with 35,000 customers.
Fuad El-Hibri, president of Digicel, said: “The superior GSM 900 MHz technology will make it possible to quickly disperse the service in Guatemala, integrate it with our network in El Salvador and expand our services to other countries in Central America.”
According to the Superintendency of Telecommunications in Guatemala, the country has more than 1 million cellular customers. According to the balances presented by the companies at the end of last year, Sercom, owned byAm