Barbados-based company Columbus International Inc, which provides digital cable TV in Trinidad through its FLOW operations, is acquiring the shares of Antilles Crossing (Barbados) IBC Inc and Antilles Crossing Holding Company (St Lucia) Ltd from Caribbean Fibre Holdings, LP.

The transaction includes the purchase of TeleBarbados Inc, Tele-St Lucia Inc and Wamco Technology Group Ltd.

TeleBarbados owns and operates a fibre rich telecommunications network in Barbados and provides advanced voice and data services to a diverse retail and corporate customer base on both a wireless and a hard-wired basis, Columbus said in a statement.

It holds a broad range of licences as issued under the Telecommunications Act of Barbados to provide domestic and international voice services, backhaul bandwidth capacity services, Internet exchange services, managed data network services, virtual private network services, public Internet access services, fixed wireless telecom services, domestic and international telecom

services, and various wireless spectrum services. Tele-St Lucia holds a series of licences issued under the Telecommunications Act of St Lucia to provide similar services throughout St Lucia.

Commenting on the transaction, Columbus chief executive officer, Brendan Paddick said:

"The acquisition of Tele-Barbados marks a significant milestone in Columbus' entry into the Barbados telecom marketplace. Columbus plans to invest heavily in Barbados over the next 24 to 36 months to offer consumers the full triple play of broadband Internet, digital landline telephone and advanced Internet protocol based video services under the brand name FLOW. In addition, Columbus will be launching a series of corporate data, connectivity and IT services under the brand Columbus Business Solutions."