March 4 — Columbus International Inc., a telecommunications company based in Barbados, on Monday announced its acquisition of Kelcom International Ltd., which operates under the name Karib Cable.
Columbus is a diversified telecommunications provider in the Caribbean, Central America and Andean region.
The company said in a release that the announcement marks the fifth significant transaction and third acquisition it has entered into or completed by Columbus in the last 12 months as it continues to scale its operations while transforming the telecommunications landscape and infrastructure in the region.
Karib Cable is the leading cable system operator in St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Antigua.
The company also holds a host of telecom licenses in Barbados where it is in the early stages of network deployment, the release further said.
Kelcom’s fiber-deep HFC cable systems pass approximately 110,000 homes and serve close to 60,000 customers offering cable television, high-speed Internet and telephony services.
“The acquisition of Kelcom marks another important milestone for Columbus as we expand our service footprint to deliver our brand of services across the Caribbean region,” Brendan Paddick, chairman and chief executive officer of Columbus said.
“We believe that this is an exciting opportunity to build upon Kelcom’s past successes to offer a truly world-class suite of services and technologies to the people and businesses of St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Antigua. We look forward to welcoming Kelcom, its customers and its approximately 250 talented professionals into the Columbus family.”
Upon completion of this transaction, Columbus’ retail operations will span eight countries across the region, pass more than 750,000 households and businesses and serve in excess of 500,000 retail customers, further strengthening the company’s position as the leading triple play service provider in the Caribbean.
Columbus provides digital cable television, broadband Internet, digital landline telephony in Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada, and Curacao under the brand name, FLOW and corporate data and cloud based services under the brand Columbus Business Solutions. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Columbus Networks, the company provides capacity and IP services, corporate data solutions and data centre hosting throughout 25 countries in the greater Caribbean, Central American and Andean region.