Meeting the unique telecom infrastructure challenges of island nations

GVIC has extensive experience advising international banks, national governments and regulatory authorities on telecom issues specific to island nations. We advised the Papua New Guinea National ICT Authority (NICTA), and the governments of Marshall Islands, Kiribati and São Tomé and Príncipe on a range of telecom financings, divestitures, regulations and universal service issues. 

We completed a market assessment for NICTA of the wholesale access markets for infrastructure and services in Papua New Guinea, and developed new regulations and license conditions for infrastructure access and sharing. We developed the Universal Access and Service Strategy for the PNG UAS Secretariat, assessed UAS access gaps, budget needs and priority projects, incorporating extensive consultations with local telecom operators and training workshops. We followed up this work up by supporting NICTA in managing tenders to subsidize the upgrade of the nation’s telecom networks to 3G/4G/LTE.

We have also advised governments in the Caribbean on infrastructure financings; advised the Government of Marshall Islands on privatization options for its national telecom company, and advised the Government of Kiribati on development of their Universal Access Strategy and establishment of the Kiribati UAS Secretariat.

We advised the Government of São Tomé and Príncipe on financing and regulating the landing station for their first submarine cable, then advised Government on the sale by OI of Brazil of its controlling interest in CST, the leading telecom operator, to Visabeira of Portugal. In the Caribbean, we advised the Governments of Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines on negotiations for Digicel to deploy new fiber rings for GWAN and commercial use. We then advised six East Caribbean countries and the East Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL) to prepare new regulations to implement components of their new Electronic Communications Bill.