State telecoms operator, Teleco, reaches out to the provinces

Teleco is Haiti’s state run telecommunications operator and the largest company in the country. Although it has been operating since 1986, well before the first Aristide government and subsequent military dictatorship, until recently it had still only managed to provide 60,000 lines for a total population of 8 million people: one of the lowest penetrations in the world.

PATRICK ANDRÉ JOSEPH Managing Director of Teleco

“Teleco was alone in the market and when you are a monopoly you don’t force yourself. But now the competition is there, you need to work hard,” explains its Managing Director Patrick André Joseph who is involved with a government company for the first time and can appraise the whole set up with an outsider’s eye. “I come from the private sector. I have my own companies,” he points out. “To me, production is everything. I don’t want to come and sit here doing nothing. That is why we have been able to launch many new projects–not just here, but in the provinces.”
The main objective is to get all systems and services fully up to date and Teleco is striving hard for that. The company is also committed to increasing capacity and has just signed a $52 million deal with an American company to provide an extra 100,000 wireless lines in Port-au-Prince. Smaller numbers of lines are also being provided in the outlying provincial townships of Gonaives, Port-de-Paix and Cap Haitien.

As part of its attempts to mobilize and modernize itself, Teleco has recently installed Teleconet, a nationwide internet service. Teleco is looking for additional companies to invest in Haiti and expand the telecommunications network wider. A future project involves setting up installations in more remote corners of the country, such as Gonaives and Port-de-Paix. ¨Mr. Joseph’s aim is for people to be able to use a phone wherever they are in Haiti.
In the future, Mr. Joseph would like to see an industry completely based on telecommunications and he has contacted various companies regarding possible projects. He is optimistic about Haiti. “Our problems are not as complex as people think,” he claims, and hopes eventually to see his country’s negative image abroad replaced by a more open-minded one.