Trilogy asks Haiti to increase mobile spectrum to help relief effort

U.S.-based Trilogy International, the parent of Haitian GSM mobile network operator Comcel (Voila) asked telecoms regulator Conatel to make unused frequencies in the 850MHz band available to help relief efforts in the wake of the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, Trilogy's CTO Stewart Sherriff told BNamericas, according to TeleGeography CommsUpdate.

Voila holds 17.5MHz in the 850MHz band and is asking for a temporary allocation of an additional 7.7MHz to help raise network capacity to cope with a surge in traffic.

Sherriff said that in some areas the company has to support 5,000 aid workers who are using voice and data, and the network is not designed to support that level of traffic.