Digicel

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

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Digicel is a mobile phone network provider covering parts of Oceania, Latin America, and the Caribbean regions. The company, which is incorporated in Bermuda, and based in Jamaica, provides mobile services in 26 countries and territories throughout the Caribbean and Central America with more than six million wireless users. Meanwhile its sister operation Digicel Pacific to date (Jan 2008) operates in five markets in the South Pacific (Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Vanuatu and Fiji). ^[1] The company's largest competitor in the Caribbean region is LIME's bmobile brand.

[edit] History

Digicel, first established April, 2001 in Jamaica grew to 100,000 customers in approximately 100 days. In the 7 years since the initial launch, Digicel's Jamaican customer base has grown to 1.9 million users (March 2008). In Haiti, where they launched operations in May 2006, the company reached 6.5 million subscribers by May 2007 and now has more than two million customers making Haiti Digicel's largest customer base to date. Digicel is 100% owned by Irish entrepreneur Denis O'Brien. The company has a marketshare of roughly 70% in Jamaica.(Digicel makes cellphone connection in Jamaica)

[edit] Competitive Issues with Incumbents

The majority of Digicel networks start up in countries where the telecommunications market has 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]

[edit] Digicel Expansion

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 2 Operator in the country. The group has also won a mobile telecommunications license in Guatemala. 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) and French Guiana (June 2006). Digicel now operates in 23 markets. Digicel has also hinted that it would undertake expansion to the United States market at some point in the future.^[4]

[edit] Digicel Pacific

Digicel's sister operation in the Pacific Islands region currently operates in Samoa and in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu , Tonga, Fiji, as well as an experimental licence in the Solomon Islands.^[5]

[edit] Partnership with ezetop

[edit] International Top Up

On 20 March 2007, Digicel signed an agreement with ezetop to provide mobile credit to the diaspora across the world. ezetop currently markets Digicel top-up for Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, Guyana, and Samoa in retail stores in the US, the UK and online around the world at their website.

A Digicel Top-Up sign at a flower shop in Antigua & Barbuda.

[edit] Digicel Online Top Up

In 2008, Digicel partnered with ezetop to launch a new Online Top Up service. The service is available to anyone across the world and enables customers to top up a Digicel customer living in any of its 31 markets. The platform offers customers an easy to use service by using ezetop’s proprietary fraud engines ezePredictor™ and ezeSpider™.

[edit] Partnership with Vodafone

On 6 February 2007, Digicel signed a three-year partnership agreement with Vodafone. Though both will remain separate and independent companies, the agreement, which includes Digicel's sister operation in Samoa, will result in the offering of new roaming capabilities. The two groups will also become preferred roaming partners of each other.^[6]^[7]

What is interesting to note, is that as well as being partners, Digicel and Vodafone are also rival operators in Fiji, where Digicel Fiji recently launched, and Vodafone owns a minority (49%) stake in Vodafone Fiji.

[edit] Digicel Foundation

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 assistance after Hurricane Ivan devastated many of the islands, especially Grenada and the Cayman Islands.^{[citation needed]} 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.

[edit] Caribbean and Central American Operations

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

**Digicel Caribbean & Centran American Territories**
Territory	GSM & CDMA Frequencies		Local Sites
Anguilla	900/1900 MHz	1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda	850/900 MHz	800 MHz (planned)	Digicel Antigua & Barbuda
Aruba	900/1800 MHz	1900 MHz	Digicel Aruba
Barbados	900/1800/1900 MHz	800/1900 MHz	Digicel Barbados
Bermuda	1900 MHz	1900 MHz	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
Guatemala (planned March 2009)	900/1800 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel Group
Guyana	900 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel Guyana
Haiti	1800/1900 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel Haiti
Honduras (Launched November 2008)	1900 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel Honduras
Cayman Islands	850/900/1800/1900 MHz	800/1900 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)	1800/1900 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	800/1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel Trinidad & Tobago