Having cemented itself as the industry leader for Jamaica and the Caribbean in the field of telecommunications engineering, Jamaica-based telecoms service provider Konnexx is planning to expand to Spanish-speaking Central America.

The 15-year-old company, which takes pride in the provision of world-class services to telecommunication giants in the region, says its foray into Spanish-speaking Central America is being well timed.

Konnexx founder and Chief Executive Officer Dean Nevers, who made the disclosure at a recent Business Observer forum, pointed to the vast opportunities being opened up for his company in Central America, especially in the Spanish-speaking countries in that region.

At present, the company, which is a large provider of telecoms engineering services, is conducting surveys and studies to see which Spanish-speaking Central American countries are still requiring an upgrade of their infrastructure.

Its in-depth knowledge of telecommunications engineering has allowed the company to grow to 400 employees, with operations in many industries, and is seen as the partner of choice for regional telecommunications entities, international hotel chains, airports, and the largest global food and beverage company, Nestle.

EXPANSION PLANS AWAITING STUDIES

According to Nevers, “as soon as those studies are completed and we identify potential countries, then we will be sending out proposals to the main telecoms service providers in those countries, offering our services…We are one of the leaders in building out a First World telecoms network and we have done it in Jamaica and other Caribbean islands. Konnexx have operations in seven Caribbean territories.

Although studies are being undertaken to determine the Spanish-speaking Central American countries to be targeted, Nevers pointed out that Konnexx has already come to the conclusion that there is a need for its services in this region.

Referring to its expansion plan as not a hope but a deliberate forward-planning strategy, the Konnexx CEO remarked, “It’s pretty much in the early stages [expansion] but we can’t just go into a market like that but we have to do the research and know what is important.”

VAST POTENTIAL IN BROADBAND

He admitted that there is a lot of room for development in the telecoms sector in these countries, particularly in the area of broadband.

“When you look around the Caribbean and Central America, there is still a lot of growth for improvement in broadband services, which means you are going to need technical support to have this infrastructure built to the highest quality,” Nevers said, emphasising that this is where Konnexx is needed and its services required.

He mentioned the recently announced plans by Prime Minister Andrew Holness to roll out a broadband network across Jamaica, which would aid in Konnexx’s expansion plans in the Spanish-speaking Central American belt.

GETTING LABOUR FORCE READY

He conceded that expanding to a region with a different language will not be easy but already Konnexx is preparing to get its labour force ready to exploit the opportunities on the horizon.

Nevers declared, “You have to get your labour force ready for that, so now it’s about future plans to actually get there,” while explaining the company’s successful training programme in which staff members are trained with the purposed of training others.

As such Konnexx would have no problem in training staff for other jurisdictions, which is currently being done in the seven Caribbean territories that the company operates.