O'Brien hopes for friendly reception

One More Thing:Tonga is nicknamed the Friendly Islands for the welcome it once gave English explorer Captain Cook in the 1770s.

Denis O'Brien will be hoping for a similarly warm reception having just acquired Tonfon, a mobile phone company owned by King George Tupou V.

Tonfon is part of the Shoreline Group of companies owned by Tonga's monarch, who is disposing of a variety of commercial interests on the islands.

Tonga has a population of 102,000, about the size of Tallaght, although its GDP is only a fraction of that in southwest Dublin. About 30,000 of the islanders have mobiles, with about two-thirds of these customers of Tonfon.

Tonga is one of a number of Pacific Islands where O'Brien is planting his phone masts. He is hoping to replicate the success of his Caribbean mobile business, which has six million customers in 23 markets.

The trick is to get in early, spend big and grab market share. None of the islands are particularly wealthy but that won't bother O'Brien.

He has more than 1.5 million subscribers in Haiti, the western world's poorest state.

Last year O'Brien paid a reputed $12 million for a 90 per cent stake in Telecom Samoa as part of a $40 million investment there.

Digicel has also started operations in Papua New Guinea, although that is being challenged by interest groups wanting to protect the state-owned incumbent.

It has also secured licences in Fiji and Vanuatu. A second mobile phone empire is building.