Executives at Merit Communications which is undertaking a US$30-million telecom venture in Jamaica. From left: Fitz Williams, director of retail sales, Blas Cardonne chief operating officer,Sophia Leister, human resource manager, and Alvin Poyser, senior vice president.

Merit Communications, a US-based telecommunications firm, is investing US$20 million to complete its infrastructure for wireless Internet and international voice service in Jamaica, the investors having already spend US$10 million on the project.

The company operates out of two buildings in the New Kingston business district - the area that has been targeted as the beachhead for its launch in the Jamaican market. One of the buildings - the former Blaise Trust headquarters on Trinidad Terrace that was acquired from Finsac for US$350,000 - houses the technical nerve centre of the operation.

The administration is housed in rented space at the Paul Chen Young building on Grenada Crescent, while a 10-year US$1-million lease has been secured with Factories Corporation of Jamaica for office space in Portmore.

"We have spent over US$10 million in setting up the operations so far," Courtney Blake, a Jamaican and president of the company, told the Business Observer yesterday. "We have no debt. It is financed from the profits of our parent company," he said.

The parent, Merit Communications, is an American real estate, cable and Internet company, that, according to Blake, had turnover of US$350 million (J$21 billion) last year. Its chairman is Kenneth Picinich.

The infrastructure build out will end in 2005, after which Merit will be able to offer wireless Internet, land-line and international voice services across Jamaica, making it a major player in the island's telecommunications services sector.

The strategy, however, is to satisfy what the company believes will be its core market - the corporations and to a lesser extent individuals in and around the highly computer-dependent New Kingston business district -

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