Sunbeach Communications Inc. is an Internet service provider and mobile/wireless phone company located in Barbados. Since the mid-1990s, Sunbeach is one of the main competitors to the incumbent telecommunications company Cable and Wireless in providing Internet services. Sunbeach was badly affected by the financial crisis of 2008 leading to halted VC investments and the link disconnection on 23 March 2013 . The Sunbeach website remains in a temporary state and offers no new products or further information. Customers found themselves without Internet and no official communication from the company on the morning of 24 March 2013. No statement has been received from the company since the disconnection until date (Q2-2016).
History
Founded by Bruce Bayley, Damian Dunphy and Leonardo Kunar in November 1995 as an Internet service provider (ISP) in Barbados to compete against Caribsurf (the brand name used by Cable and Wireless for Internet service provision in the Caribbean) and CaribNet, the first ISP launched in the Eastern Caribbean by Ian Worrell which grew out of the bulletin board system (BBS)"The Junction BBS". In May 1997 Christopher Alleyne and Thomas Clarke joined Damian Dunphy as owner managers of Sunbeach. Soon thereafter Sunbeach acquired the customer base of Caribnet (the first ISP in Barbados) and Ian Worrell, Caribnet's founder joined the Sunbeach management team. Sunbeach grew to become the largest ISP in Barbados by mid-2001. In January, 2002 it was made public that Sunbeach and the UK based Telecommunications Company called International Telecom Brokers Limited (ITB) were contemplating and formulating a strategy to merge. The purported advantages of the merger was that Sunbeach in Barbados could draw from the experience of the UK team and have a far more expanded international reach. The merged company would be based in Barbados, with a subsidiary operating from the United Kingdom. The benefits to be derived were, a lower cost of product to the consumer, an increase of products especially in e-commerce and emerging m-commerce, and the ability to make Barbados far more competitive with other business locations such as the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. Leading up to the Sunbeach and ITB Ltd. merger problems started to surface. Personnel at the companies tried to allay fears and promise that the merger will create an increase of jobs, lead the company on an international path, as well as joint listings on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London and Barbados Stock Exchange (BSE) and also that new investors from the United Kingdom would help raise needed funding for establishing a local 3G GSM mobile phone network. The merger never did take place but Sunbeach went on to achieve the stock exchange listings in Barbados and London in August 2002. Sunbeach went on to bid for one of the mobile phone licenses in Barbados and in August 2003 was awarded one of three new licenses issued by the Barbados Government. Other winners of licenses were Digicel and AT&T.
In July 2004, the future of Sunbeach was called into question, an audit of the company by Deloitte & Touche cited that the company's future hinged on establishing more capital to secure a future for the company.
Following this, on 28 September 2004 Sunbeach Communications had its shares suspended on the Barbados Stock Exchange because of the serious financial position of the company until the Annual General Meeting could be held with shareholders. Following the suspension of shares on the BSE, the Board of Sunbeach voluntarily asked the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) on the London Stock Exchange to suspend shares there as well. This led to Sunbeach becoming delisted from the AIM in April, 2005.
In June, 2005 Sunbeach announced that Telecom Holdings Limited, (TH) of Trinidad and Tobago wished to acquire a significant stake into Sunbeach Communications Inc and the board of Directors urged shareholder to agree to a sale of partial ownership. This never happened, see the section on Laqtel below.
In October 2005 the Managing Director - Michael Wakley - stepped down and Ian Worrell took over the running of the company. Talks with Laqtel collapsed and Mr. Worrell initiated talks with VTel Holdings a company registered in Dubai.