Digicel - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Digicel is a mobile phone

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

network provider covering parts of Oceania

Oceania

Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...

, Central America

Central America

Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

, and the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

regions. The company is owned by Irishman

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

Denis O'Brien

Denis O'Brien is an Irish businessman with international connections. An Arts graduate of University College Dublin, O'Brien has received a MBA in corporate finance from Boston College in 1982, and was later given an honorary doctorate by University College Dublin.O'Brien has involvement with...

, is incorporated in Bermuda

Bermuda

Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...

, and based in Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

. It provides mobile services in 26 countries and territories throughout the Caribbean and Central America

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

Oceania

(Fiji

Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

, French Polynesia

French Polynesia

French Polynesia is an overseas country of the French Republic . It is made up of several groups of Polynesian islands, the most famous island being Tahiti in the Society Islands group, which is also the most populous island and the seat of the capital of the territory...

, Nauru

Nauru

Nauru , officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country in Micronesia in the South Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Kiribati, to the east. Nauru is the world's smallest republic, covering just...

, Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

, Samoa

Samoa

Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...

, Tonga

Tonga

Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...

, and Vanuatu

Vanuatu

Vanuatu , officially the Republic of Vanuatu , is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.Vanuatu was...

).
The company's largest competitor in the Caribbean region is LIME

LIME (Cable & Wireless)

LIME, an acronym for 'Landline, Internet, Mobile, Entertainment', is a communications provider owned by the British based Cable & Wireless Communications plc operating in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts...

. In March of 2011, Digicel sold its operations in Honduras and El Salvador to Mexican telecom giant America Movil

América Móvil

América Móvil is a Mexican telecommunication company headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico. It is the fourth largest mobile network operator in terms of equity subscribers, one of the largest corporations in Latin America, and the world. America Movil is a Fortune 500 company...

, 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.

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

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

, 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

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

entrepreneur Denis O'Brien

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 telecommunication

Telecommunication

Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...

s market has been newly liberalised

Economic liberalization

Economic liberalization is a very broad term that usually refers to fewer government regulations and restrictions in the economy in exchange for greater participation of private entities; the doctrine is associated with classical liberalism...

. As a result there have been numerous rows between Digicel executives and former state incumbent operators over interconnect agreement

Interconnect agreement

An interconnect agreement is a business contract between telecommunications organizations for the purpose of interconnecting their networks and exchanging telecommunications traffic...

s. This has led to Digicel taking some incumbent operators to court.

Digicel Expansion

In 2006, Digicel expanded into the South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

n mainland as well as the Pacific. On September 2006, Digicel acquired an unrelated mobile phone provider Digicel Holdings in El Salvador

El Salvador

El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...

, rebranding it as El Nuevo Digicel. Digicel El Salvador has now overtaken Claro

Claro (mobile phone network)

Claro is the largest mobile phone network in the Americas. It is part of the Mexican telecom group América Móvil which is one of the four largest mobile phone network operators in the world, with more than 200 million customers...

as number two operator in the country. In December 2007, Digicel won a highly competitive bid for a mobile license in Honduras

Honduras

Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...

and Digicel won a licence to operate in Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

in May 2008. Digicel launched in Honduras

Honduras

Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...

and the British Virgin Islands

British Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands, often called the British Virgin Islands , is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S...

in November 2008 and in Panama

Panama

in December 2008.

In 2007 Digicel also expanded their presence in South America and in the country of Guyana

Guyana

Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

, acquiring U*Mobile, now rebranded as Digicel Guyana Ltd as well as launching in Suriname

Suriname

Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...

(December 2007) and French Guiana

French Guiana

French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...

(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

Pacific Islands

The Pacific Islands comprise 20,000 to 30,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands are also sometimes collectively called Oceania, although Oceania is sometimes defined as also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago....

region currently operates in Samoa

Samoa

and in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

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

Vanuatu

, Tonga

Tonga

Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...

, Fiji

Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

, Nauru

Nauru

as well as an experimental licence in the Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

and Tahiti

Tahiti

Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...

. 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".

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

Vanuatu vatu

The vatu is the currency of Vanuatu.The vatu has no subdivisions.-History:The vatu was introduced in 1982, after independence, to replace the New Hebrides franc at par...

compared to the over 1000 vatu

Vanuatu vatu

The vatu is the currency of Vanuatu.The vatu has no subdivisions.-History:The vatu was introduced in 1982, after independence, to replace the New Hebrides franc at par...

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 creating an ecosystem of agents that includes the main commercial banks ANZ Bank

ANZ Bank

The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited , commonly called ANZ, is the fourth largest bank in Australia, after the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac Banking Corporation and the National Australia Bank. Australian operations make up the largest part of ANZ's business, with commercial and retail...

, BSP, Westpac

Westpac

Westpac , is a multinational financial services, one of the Australian "big four" banks and the second-largest bank in New Zealand....

, 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

GSM Association

The GSM Association is an association of mobile operators and related companies devoted to supporting the standardizing, deployment and promotion of the GSM mobile telephone system...

's Mobile Money for the Unbanked

Unbanked

The unbanked are citizens of a country who do not have their own bank account. Along with the underbanked, they may rely on alternative financial services for their financial needs, where these are available.-The unbanked in the United States:...

(MMU) initiative.

Digicel Caribbean

On Tuesday 8 February 2011, Digicel, has taken a controlling stake in Netxar Technologies, the leading systems integrator in the Caribbean region.

Partnership with Vodafone

On 6 February 2007, Digicel signed a three-year partnership agreement with Vodafone

Vodafone

Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...

. 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

Roaming

In wireless telecommunications, roaming is a general term referring to the extension of connectivity service in a location that is different from the home location where the service was registered. Roaming ensures that the wireless device is kept connected to the network, without losing the...

capabilities. The two groups will also become preferred roaming partners of each other.

What is interesting to note, is that as well as being partners, Digicel and Vodafone are also rival operators in Fiji

Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

, where Digicel Fiji recently launched, and Vodafone owns a minority (49%) stake in Vodafone Fiji.

Digicel Foundation

Digicel and its shareholder

Shareholder

A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or institution that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a public or private corporation. Shareholders own the stock, but not the corporation itself ....

s 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

Hurricane Ivan

Hurricane Ivan was a large, long-lived, Cape Verde-type hurricane that caused widespread damage in the Caribbean and United States. The cyclone was the ninth named storm, the sixth hurricane and the fourth major hurricane of the active 2004 Atlantic hurricane season...

devastated many of the islands, especially Grenada and the Cayman Islands

Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union located in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica...

.
To date the Digicel Foundation in Jamaica has allocated US$7 million to sustainable development

Sustainable development

Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...

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
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	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
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 (planned)	Digicel Trinidad & Tobago