BRIDGETOWN, BAR­BA­DOS-Colum­bus In­ter­na­tion­al Inc. ("Colum­bus") has an­nounced that it of­fi­cial­ly ac­quired for­mal ap­proval to en­ter the Bar­ba­dos telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions mar­ket. The ap­proval in­cludes the ac­qui­si­tion of Tele­Bar­ba­dos and all req­ui­site li­cens­es to pro­vide whole­sale and re­tail broad­band-en­abled ser­vices for both busi­ness­es and con­sumers.

In his video ad­dress to CTU ICT Road­show at­ten­dees, Bren­dan Pad­dick, CEO of Colum­bus Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, said: "Bar­ba­dos' high qual­i­ty in­fra­struc­ture, ex­cel­lent work­force and re­li­able in­sti­tu­tions pro­vides the foun­da­tion for Bar­ba­di­ans to use tech­nol­o­gy to trans­form their coun­try."

He con­tin­ued, "Hav­ing ef­fec­tive­ly low­ered telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions costs, pro­vid­ed af­ford­able ac­cess and forced ex­ist­ing play­ers to raise their game in every mar­ket we have en­tered, Colum­bus is ea­ger to repli­cate the same suc­cess in Bar­ba­dos." Over the past eight years, Colum­bus has in­vest­ed well over $1 bil­lion in its sub­sea and ter­res­tri­al net­works, which now span 23 coun­tries.