Elko Broadband Inc. has shown interest to acquire majority stakes in World Call, we have checked with sources who are directly aware of the development.
Elko has said that it will gain management control of the company through 51% stakes in World Call.
In the first phase, Elko plans to invest more than USD 50 million in Worldcall fiber and media assets. Down the line further investments will be made, the company said, to make it the market leader in FTTH and media operations in Pakistan.
Elko said that it targets to reach nearly 1 million subscribers on just FTTH. It didn’t say anything about how long it intends to take to reach the milestone.
For those who don’t know, Elko Broadband is a telecom holding company of an Oil and Mining conglomerate with extensive operations in Oil and Gas production and transmission along with mining concession in the USA and Pakistan.
Beyond its Cable and Media holding in the USA, Elko is making strategic acquisitions targeting huge opportunity in FTTH and content transmission segments in Pakistan.
Not to mention, Mr James Gibbsons, one of the directors in ELKO, is ex-governor of Nevada.
World Call, after turbulent times, recently decided to do FTTH for which it has finalized the vendors and from what we have heard, the pilot has been carried out successfully.
It merits mentioning here that Elko had made an offer to Wateen Telecom for the acquisition of its Pakistan operations but the deal did not go through. Elko’s offer for 100% stakes in Wateen was around USD 170 million including settlement of the institutional debt.
Elko Broadband Inc is being listed on NASDAQ consolidating its Telecom holdings in the USA and Pakistan and has already initiated the regulatory processes for the same.
As part of its investment strategy for Worldcall, Elko broadband Inc. also plans to invest heavily in fiber-optic infrastructure of the company to establish a service delivery platform targeting 5G Operations in line with the 5G license award planned by GoP.
Worldcall Telecom Limited is a premium Cable TV operator along with significant telecom operations in LDI and fiber optic/broadband segment across Pakistan.
