Ericsson provides Digicel’s Latin American EDGE

Swedish vendor Ericsson has been contracted by pan-Caribbean operator Digicel Group to provide nationwide GSM/EDGE networks in El Salvador and Guyana, with commercial deployment expected in the next three months. Digicel, based in Jamaica and backed by Irish capital, purchased the Salvadoran cellco Digicel (no relation) in October last year for an undisclosed sum, gaining a GSM network and an estimated 222,000 subscribers in El Salvador, plus an unused GSM licence in neighbouring Guatemala. Digicel’s planned networks will be the most advanced in both countries; in El Salvador only Telefónica’s Movistar operates a GPRS network, which is not EDGE-ready; in Guyana there are two competing GSM -only networks .