Wireless World LLC has purchased VIAccess from Gordon P. Ackley.
The acquisition should speed up the development of wireless Internet and other communications services to Virgin Islanders, according to Ackley, who will be the chief executive officer of Wireless World.
Ackley said he'd been working on this deal for two years.
Though he now has six cell sites providing wireless services, Ackley said he wanted to expedite the growth.
"I have the technology, but not the pocketbook," he said. Thanks to the acquisition, Ackley said 21 sites should be up in the next six months.
"Those 21 sites will cover 90 percent of the population," he said.
Cornelius B. Prior Jr., CEO of Atlantic Tele-Network Inc., Wireless World's parent company, said the company "will be committed to continuing the deployment of WDSL high-speed wireless broadband Internet access across the territory."
During the past year VIAccess began to provide high-speed wireless Internet service throughout the islands.
According to a release from ATN, VIAccess is the largest Internet Service Provider in the Virgin Islands.
ATN, headquartered in St. Thomas, owns and operates Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Co. Ltd., the national telephone service provider for the Republic of Guyana. ATN also owns a 75 percent interest in Digicom S.A., which provides dispatch radio, wireless data network and paging services in Haiti, and a 30 percent interest in Bermuda Digital Communications Ltd.
When asked about voice service over the wireless network, Ackley would only say it was coming.
"This is a great day," Ackley said "and the reason is, the people of the V.I. will soon have a choice in their cable TV, Internet, telephone and data services."
