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Oceanic Digital (Ja) signs US$30 million loan agreement with IDB
published: Thursday / March 18, 2004

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20040318/business/business1.html

Craig McBurnett (left), chief executive officer of Oceanic Digital Jamaica, addresses (left to right) Keith Evans, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Jamaica representative; Jennifer Carty-Peart, director of capital markets for FirstCaribbean International Bank; and Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Commerce, Science and Technology. They were participating in the signing of a US$30 million loan agreement between the IDB and Oceanic, at the Hilton Kingston Hotel, New Kingston yesterday. - Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer

OCEANIC DIGITAL (Jamaica) Limited and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) yesterday signed a US$30 million loan agreement at the Hilton Kingston Hotel.

The loan is historic, as it is the first for Jamaica for the IDB Private Sector Department, established in 1994 to lend directly to the private sector without government sovereign guarantees.

The loan will enable Oceanic Digital (Jamaica) Limited, marketers of the MiPhone brand locally, to complete its nationwide build-out that will provide reliable telephone services throughout Jamaica.

Oceanic plans to provide high quality voice signals, high-speed Internet access and data services throughout the island.

"The loan will allow us funding for the completion of the network, our business plan going forward, as well as data and internet services," said Craig McBurnett, Oceanic's Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. McBurnett says the financing is also a sign that the IDB believes that there is a promising future in the Oceanic business plan for Jamaica.

MiPhone delivers cellular services to well over 70,000 customers under its MiPhone brand that offers Jamaicans the lowest mobile phone rates on the island. Recent expansion extends Oceanic's state-of-the-art CDMA network to Ocho Rios and the North Coast.

MiPhone products and services are distributed at locations island-wide, including company stores and independent dealers.