About Haiti Teleco

TELECO is the incumbent telecom company of Haiti. The Republic of Haiti, in a commitment to modernize the Haitian economy and revitalize the telecommunication sector, has announced its intention to modernize TELECO through a Public-Private Partnership with a reputable telecommunication investor (the “Partnership”). Through the Partnership, the Republic of Haiti intends to transfer majority ownership and management control of TELECO to the private sector which will in turn recapitalize the company and ensure its long-term development.

With a population of approximately 10 million inhabitants (2008) growing at a yearly rate of 1.5%, Haiti is potentially the largest telecom market in the Caribbean after Cuba. The country has been experiencing an explosion of telecommunication services in recent years and forecasts show that demand for new services (mobile and fixed voice, internet) will continue to grow.

The Partnership will create the only global telecom operator in Haiti. It will notably include:

  • TELECO’s nationwide fixed-line network (160,000 lines, opportunity to leverage XDSL technology);
  • a nationwide 3G mobile license and a nationwide GSM mobile license (900MHz and 1900MHz) that will enable the company to enter and become an important player in the growing and profitable mobile telephony market;
  • a nationwide WiMax frequency will allow the company to become a prominent high-speed internet provider in the country, and the rights to operate a fiber optic national backbone; and
  • the right to operate access points to international submarine cables, thereby defining the future operator as the capacity service provider which the country needs to address current infrastructure gaps.

In partnership with the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC), TELECO controls a 10 GB fiber optic submarine cable which connects Port-au-Prince to the Bahamas, and from there to the United States. The Bahamas Domestic Submarine Network (BDSNi) is over 2,800 km in length and capable of carrying up to 1.92 Tbps of transmission capacity. Together with its INTELSAT satellite infrastructure, the BDSNi will position TELECO as a leading provider of international data access to Haiti.

A key element of Teleco’s fixed-line network is the 60 km fiber optic network in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital and largest city (over 2.1 million inhabitants). This fiber optic network was initially created to provide a data backbone for Haitian banks.

In 2006, a new management team was appointed with the mandate of implementing a set of key actions in preparation for the Partnership including the retrenchment of over two-third of the workforce. TELECO is now operating with a workforce of about 1,260 employees.