Digicel Group Limited

Type	Private - owned by Denis O'Brien
Industry	Mobile telecommunications
Founded	April 19, 2001
Headquarters	Kingston, Jamaica
Key people	Colm Delves (CEO) Denis O'Brien (Executive Chairman)
Products	Mobile networks, Telecom services, WiMAX Broadband, Etc.
Employees	~5,500 (2008)
Website	Digicel Group Ltd. Digicel Pacific Ltd.

Digicel is a mobile phone network provider operating in 31 markets across the Caribbean, Central America, and Oceania regions. The company is owned by Irishman Denis O'Brien, is incorporated in Bermuda, and based in Jamaica. It has about 13 million wireless users.

As of 2012, Digicel's markets comprise: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, El Salvador, Fiji, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Nauru, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks and Caicos, and Vanuatu.

History[edit]

Caribbean and Central America[edit]

Wireless service in the Caribbean had been under the control of the large British company Cable & Wireless, the longtime provider of telecommunications services in the region. Cable & Wireless had little competition or incentive to change, and wireless service was considered expensive and poor in quality by Caribbean customers.^[1]

In 2001, however, Jamaica decided to open its phone market up for competition. Digicel, owned by Irish entrepreneur Denis O'Brien, first established itself in April 2001 in Jamaica. It grew to 100,000 customers there in approximately 100 days. In the ten years since the initial launch, Digicel's Jamaican customer base has grown to over two million users. The company has a marketshare of over 70% in Jamaica.^[1]

In Haiti, where they launched operations in May 2006, the company now has 2.4 million customers making Haiti Digicel's largest customer base to date.

The majority of Digicel networks started up in countries where the telecommunications market had been newly liberalised. As a result there have been numerous rows between Digicel executives and former state incumbent operators over interconnect agreements. This has led to Digicel taking some incumbent operators to court.^[2][3]

A Digicel storefront in Castries, Saint Lucia, in 2012

In 2006, Digicel expanded into the South American mainland as well as the Pacific. On September 2006, Digicel acquired an unrelated mobile phone provider Digicel Holdings in El Salvador, rebranding it as El Nuevo Digicel. Digicel El Salvador has now overtaken Claro as number two operator in the country. In December 2007, Digicel won a highly competitive bid for a mobile license in Honduras and Digicel won a licence to operate in Panama in May 2008. Digicel launched in Honduras and the British Virgin Islands in November 2008 and in Panama in December 2008.

In 2007, Digicel also expanded their presence in South America and in the country of Guyana, acquiring U*Mobile, now rebranded as Digicel Guyana Ltd as well as launching in Suriname (December 2007)^[4] and French Guiana (June 2006).

In February 2007, Digicel signed a three-year partnership agreement with Vodafone. Though both remained separate and independent companies, the agreement, which included Digicel's sister operation in Samoa, resulted in the offering of new roaming capabilities. The two groups also became preferred roaming partners of each other.^[5][6]

In February 2011, Digicel took a controlling stake in Netxar Technologies, the leading systems integrator in the Caribbean region.^[7] Digicel also has coverage in St. Martin and St. Barts in the Caribbean.

In March 2011, Digicel sold its operations in Honduras and El Salvador to Mexican telecom giant America Movil, in turn America Movil sold all of its operations in Jamaica to Digicel. The latter actions strengthened America Movil's dominance of the Latin American market, while Digicel strengthened its hold on its domestic market. In March 2012, Digicel made the acquisition of Comcel / Voila, its main competitor in Haiti, for $97 million.

The company's largest competitors in the Caribbean region are LIME, an outgrowth of Cable & Wireless, Claro Americas, part of América Móvil, and Columbus Communications.

Myanmar[edit]

In a country with virtually no telephone infrastructure, Digicel announced that it would invest $9 billion in a mobile phone network in Myanmar. Digicel plans to have 96 per cent coverage in Myanmar by the end of 2015.^[8]

Digicel Pacific[edit]

Digicel's sister operation in the Pacific Islands region operates in Samoa and in Papua New Guinea running at 900mhz GSM with GPRS & Edge data services and in PNG Digicel is now rolling out 3G UMTS/HSDA also data services, also via 900mhz), Vanuatu, Tonga, Fiji, Nauru as well as an experimental licence in the Solomon Islands and Tahiti.^[9]

Digicel Fiji on 3 November 2010 changed its logo with a shade of blue in the last letters "cel". The blue colour represents the background colour of the Fiji flag and coincided with Digicel Fiji's new ad campaign slogan "Fiji Matters To Us".^[10] As well as being partners, Digicel and Vodafone are also rival operators in Fiji, where Digicel Fiji was launched and Vodafone owns a minority (49%) stake in Vodafone Fiji.

Digicel Mobile Money launched in Fiji in July 2010 with subsequent deployments in Tonga (January 2011), Samoa (March 2011), Vanuatu (July 2011) and Nauru and Papua New Guinea in progress. In Vanuatu, similar to other countries, Digicel reduced the cost of mobile phone ownership dramatically making it available to a much larger number of the population. At launch the cost of a phone was 500 vatu compared to the over 1000 vatu for the incumbent operator Telecom Vanuatu Limited with its Smile network.

In addition, Digicel was the first to deploy mobile money services in these countries^[11] creating an ecosystem of agents that includes the main commercial banks ANZ Bank, BSP, Westpac, National Bank Vanuatu as well as key money movers such as PostFiji and VanuatuPost. The service has been supported by The Pacific Financial Inclusion Program, AusAid and GSM Association's Mobile Money for the Unbanked initiative.^[12]

Sponsorships[edit]

Volunteers from Digicel distributed several tons of food to Haitian citizens in Port-au-Prince, in a distribution sponsored by the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development following the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Digicel is a leading sponsor of Caribbean, Central American and Asia-Pacific sports teams, including the Special Olympics teams throughout these regions. Digicel sponsors the West Indies cricket team. It was the title sponsor of the Digicel Caribbean Cup during 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2010. It also sponsors the Cayman Islands Digicel Cup in football, starting in 2006. Digicel sponsors the highest level of football in Trinidad & Tobago, the TT Pro League, known for sponsorship reasons as "The Digicel Pro League".

In the Pacific, Digicel is the sponsor of several national rugby teams and also sponsors the Vanuatu national cricket team.^[13] It is the sponsor of the Digicel Cup for rugby in Fiji. It also sponsors Taça Digicel, the second top division of the Federaçao Futebol Timor-Leste.

In April they were announced as the first global sponsor of the 2013 inaugural tournament for the Caribbean Premier League.^[14] This multi-year deal follows their strategy for supporting cricket and other sporting events in the Caribbean. “The CPL is a perfect fit for Digicel. We’re huge fans of West Indies cricket and this is a great opportunity for us to invest not only in what will be an amazing event, but also in the young cricketers who will benefit from around the region,” stated Digicel Group Marketing Operations Director Kieran Foley. “Having seen all the plans for the inaugural tournament, we know the CPL will be a spectacle like nothing else seen in the region and we are looking forward to being front and centre of the action.” ^[15]

Digicel Foundation[edit]

Digicel and its shareholders set up a foundation that has been actively involved in charitable work throughout the Caribbean involving a wide range of school and sports projects as well as providing some J$200 million in assistance after Hurricane Ivan devastated many of the islands, especially Grenada and the Cayman Islands.^[16]

To date the Digicel Foundation in Jamaica has allocated US$7 million to sustainable development community projects in the country. In Haiti the Digicel Foundation built 20 primary schools in its first year. Digicel promised $5 million in aid to Haiti after the catastrophic 2010 Haiti earthquake struck Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010. The company has been responsible for several major commitments to re-building Haiti, including the restoration of the historic Iron Market^[17] and a commitment to build a new hotel to further encourage economic growth in the capital.

Caribbean and Central American operations[edit]

The Caribbean and Central American operations of Digicel Group (December 2008).

Digicel Caribbean & Central American Territories

Territory	GSM & CDMA Frequencies		Local Sites
Anguilla	900/1900 MHz	1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda	850/900 MHz		Digicel Antigua & Barbuda
Aruba	900/1800 MHz	1900 MHz	Digicel Aruba
Barbados	900/1800/1900 MHz	1900 MHz	Digicel Barbados
Bermuda	1900 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel Bermuda
Bonaire	900/1800 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel Bonaire
Curaçao	900/1800/1900 MHz	1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel Curaçao
Dominica	900/1900 MHz	1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel Dominica
El Salvador	900 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel El Salvador
French Guiana	900/1800 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel French Windies & French Guiana
Grenada	900/1800/1900 MHz	1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel Grenada
Guadeloupe	900/1800 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel French Windies & French Guiana
Guyana	900 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel Guyana
Haiti	1800 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel Haiti
Honduras (Launched November 2008)	1900 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel Honduras
Cayman Islands	850/900/1800/1900 MHz	1900 MHz	Digicel Cayman Islands
Jamaica	900/1800/1900 MHz	1900 MHz	Digicel Jamaica
Martinique	900/1800 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel French Windies & French Guiana
Panama (launched December 2008)	1900 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel Panamá
Saint Kitts and Nevis	900/1800/1900 MHz	1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel Saint Kitts & Nevis
Saint Lucia	900/1800/1900 MHz	1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel St. Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	900/1800/1900 MHz	1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel Saint Vincent & the Grenadines
Suriname	900 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel Suriname
Turks and Caicos Islands	900/1900 MHz	1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel Turks & Caicos
Trinidad and Tobago	850/1900 MHz	1900 MHz	Digicel Trinidad & Tobago

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Digicel Homepage
• Digicel Problems Online Forum
• Babble Rouser - By Bernard Condon 07.17.08, 6:00 PM ET - Forbes Magazine
• Digicel among three bidding for Colombia's third-largest cellular company (September 1, 2006) - Barbados Advocate
• Digicel to build US$10-million Caribbean headquarters in Kingston (April 30, 2006) - Jamaica Observer Newspaper
• Digicel marks five year anniversary with record growth (April 22, 2006) - Caribbean Net News
• Digicel continues expansion (August 26, 2005) - Barbados Advocate
• Denis O'Brien, visionary philanthropist embraces employee ownership' by Jean Lowrie-Chin (April 2006) - Jamaica Observer
• Digicel racks up US$74M loss - Nation News (October 9, 2008)
• Digicell vehicle tracking for fleet management - South Africa
• Digicel Limited Closes $300M Bond Issue (December 2010) - Jamaica News Bulletin