- Digicel
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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 covering parts of Oceania, Central America, and the Caribbean regions. The company is owned by Irishman Denis O'Brien, is incorporated in Bermuda, and based in Jamaica. It 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 (June 2010) operates in seven markets in the South Pacific (Fiji, French Polynesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu). [1] The company's largest competitor in the Caribbean region is LIME. In March of 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.
Contents
History
Digicel, first established April, 2001 in Jamaica grew to 100,000 customers in approximately 100 days. In the ten years since the initial launch, Digicel's Jamaican customer base has grown to over two million users. 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. Digicel is 100% owned by Irish entrepreneur Denis O'Brien. The company has a marketshare of over 70% in Jamaica.(Digicel makes cellphone connection in Jamaica)
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]
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 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) and French Guiana (June 2006). Digicel now operates in 32 markets across the Caribbean, Central America and Pacific.
Digicel Pacific
Digicel's sister operation in the Pacific Islands region currently 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.[4] 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".[5]
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 (TVL) with it's Smile network.
In addition Digicel was the first to deploy mobile money services in these countries[6] 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 (MMU) initiative.[7]
Digicel Caribbean
On Tuesday 8 February 2011, Digicel, has taken a controlling stake in Netxar Technologies, the leading systems integrator in the Caribbean region.[8]
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.[9][10]
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.
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. Digicel promised $5 million Aid to Haiti after an earthquake struck Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010.
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 
Anguilla900/1900 MHz 1900 MHz (planned) Digicel Anguilla 
Antigua and Barbuda850/900 MHz Digicel Antigua & Barbuda 
Aruba900/1800 MHz 1900 MHz Digicel Aruba 
Barbados900/1800/1900 MHz 1900 MHz Digicel Barbados 
Bermuda1900 MHz 1900 MHz Digicel Bermuda 
Bonaire900/1800 MHz NO CDMA Digicel Bonaire 
Curaçao900/1800/1900 MHz 1900 MHz (planned) Digicel Curaçao 
Dominica900/1900 MHz 1900 MHz (planned) Digicel Dominica 
El Salvador900 MHz NO CDMA Digicel El Salvador 
French Guiana900/1800 MHz NO CDMA Digicel French Windies & French Guiana 
Grenada900/1800/1900 MHz 1900 MHz (planned) Digicel Grenada Guadeloupe900/1800 MHz NO CDMA Digicel French Windies & French Guiana 
Guyana900 MHz NO CDMA Digicel Guyana 
Haiti1800 MHz NO CDMA Digicel Haiti 
Honduras (Launched November 2008)1900 MHz NO CDMA Digicel Honduras 
Cayman Islands850/900/1800/1900 MHz 1900 MHz Digicel Cayman Islands 
Jamaica900/1800/1900 MHz 1900 MHz Digicel Jamaica Martinique900/1800 MHz NO CDMA Digicel French Windies & French Guiana 
Panama (launched December 2008)1900 MHz NO CDMA Digicel Panamá 
Saint Kitts and Nevis900/1800/1900 MHz 1900 MHz (planned) Digicel Saint Kitts & Nevis 
Saint Lucia900/1800/1900 MHz 1900 MHz (planned) Digicel St. Lucia 
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines900/1800/1900 MHz 1900 MHz (planned) Digicel Saint Vincent & the Grenadines 
Suriname900 MHz NO CDMA Digicel Suriname 
Turks and Caicos Islands900/1900 MHz 1900 MHz (planned) Digicel Turks & Caicos 
Trinidad and Tobago850/1900 MHz 1900 MHz (planned) Digicel Trinidad & Tobago References
- ^ Digicel Caribbean: Group
- ^ High Court Action by Digicel Against Cable & Wireless Over Unlawful Behaviour
- ^ Breaking News: Irish vs British in Digicel TSTT Spat
- ^ [1].
- ^ 'Digicel's new look', Fiji TImes, 4 Nov 2010 (http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?ref=archive&id=159180)
- ^ "Welcome to Digicel Mobile Money". http://www.digicelmobilemoney.com. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
- ^ "Mobile Money for the Unbanked". GSM World. http://www.gsmworld.com/our-work/mobile_planet/mobile_money_for_the_unbanked/. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
- ^ http://www.digicelgroup.com/en/media-center/press-releases/achievements/digicel-acquires-netxar-technologies
- ^ Vodafone and Digicel sign 3 year partnership agreement - JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM
- ^ [2]
External links
- Digicel Homepage
- Babble Rouser - By Bernard Condon 07.17.08, 6:00 PM ET - Forbes Magazine
- Digicel Suriname License - Caribbean Net News (April 17, 2007)
- 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 22nd, 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
Caribbean mobile phone companies AT&T · Centennial · Choice Wireless · Claro · Comcel Haiti · Digicel · ETECSA · Islandcom · LIME, bmobile (Trinidad and Tobago) · Orange · Sprint · T-Mobile · TracFone · Tricom · Viva
Trinidad and Tobago mobile phone companies bmobile TSTT · Digicel · Laqtel (License revoked)
Categories:- Mobile phone companies of Trinidad and Tobago
- Mobile phone companies of El Salvador
- Vodafone
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