Digicel wins multi-million-dollar contract in the West Indies

DIGICEL has landed a contract from the government of the Commonwealth of Dominica, in the West Indies, to rebuild and manage the country’s telecommunications and ICT services infrastructure.

The 15-year contract is understood to be worth tens of millions of dollars.

Dominica, an island nation sometimes confused with the bigger Dominican Republic, also in the Caribbean, issued a tender for the works as it looks to recover from the devastating effects of Hurricane Maria in September last year.

The contract means Digicel will undertake the rebuilding and provisioning of telecommunications, internet, data, cloud and other ICT services, including for all government offices, schools, community and health centres.

“We are honoured to have been selected by the government of the Commonwealth of Dominica for this transformational project which will provide the foundation for the provision of new advanced digital services such as eGovernment, Safe and Smart Cities, Connected Health and Smart Education, and make them a powerful reality for the people of Dominica,” said Digicel Group CEO Alexander Matuschka.

The successful tender is a boost to Digicel, which last week launched a $3bn (€2.58bn) bond swap, aimed at giving the Denis O’Brienowned company more breathing room to show it can deliver a revenue boost as customers migrate to fast data and smartphones across its 31 markets. The bond swap offer to investors will give Digicel an additional two years before it faces a major debt repayment deadline, and gives bondholders the option of exchanging bonds that have been trading well below face value for new securities issued at what is in effect the face value of the outstanding debt.

Digicel last week launched a $3bn bond swap