Denis O'Brien's mobile phone company Digicel has been awarded a licence to operate a GSM network in Papua New Guinea. The licence has been won by Digicel Pacific, which has been set up to focus on the South Pacific mobile market.
Papua New Guinea has a population of 5.9 million people, but mobile penetration is just 1%. Digicel Papua New Guinea expects to launch in early 2007.
Digicel says it wants to build a seamless South Pacific GSM network. It has been awarded a GSM licence from the government of Samoa and was also been granted a licence in principle from the government of Fiji in April 2006.
Digicel has already built up a substantial GSM network in the Caribbean region, operating across 20 countries.
