Pacific

Digicel moving ahead with Solomons' development despite Telekom opposition

13:43 pm on 9 September 2008

The Irish-owned telecommunications company, Digicel, is planning to run a mobile network in the Solomon Islands despite a government court challenge blocking its entry.

Digicel applied in December 2006 to enter the Solomons but never received a licence.

The mostly state owned Solomon Telekom, which has a monopoly, took out a court challenge a year ago to stop Digicel setting up in competition.

But Niamh Byrne, the Fiji based marketing director for Digicel Pacific, says the Solomons government now wants to introduce competition in the telecommunications sector.

She says Digicel and the government are working on ways to achieve this including the company defending itself in the National Court in the challenge by Telekom.

Ms Byrne says a small team is on the ground doing some preliminary investigative work for the mobile company's planned establishment.