Thursday, January 18 2007

Mobile telephone service provider Digicel, now claims subscriber growth in excess of 100 percent throughout the Caribbean. In a release issued this week, Digicel declared that it ended the year 2006 with a total investment in the Caribbean region exceeding US$1.5 billion and now operates in 22 markets with four million customers, representing a subscriber growth in excess of 100 percent.

Last year saw Digicel establishing a presence in Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, Turks and Caicos, Guyana, Bonaire and acquiring existing operations in Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana, said a press statement from the company.

Haiti, with a population of 8.5 million, remains Digicel’s biggest market. Launched in May 2006, it already has one million customers in a country with both a fixed and cellular penetration of 5.7 percent. Last year Digicel invested US$260M in Haiti, the company said.

In October of last year, Digicel acquired El Salvador mobile operator Digicel Holdings Limited, thus making a foray into the growing Central American mobile phone market. The following month Digicel acquired U Mobile in Guyana and has plans to re-brand that business later this year. The year 2006 also saw Digicel acquiring Bouygues Telecom Caribe, thereby taking the brand into the French Caribbean islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana.

Digicel now employs 3,000 people throughout its Caribbean operations and last year introduced a company-wide employee share option programme, it was noted.

In August Digicel closed a US$150M bond offering led by investment banks Citigroup and JP Morgan to assist in financing its businesses in Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago.

Since Digicel launched its operations in 2001, it now records an average annual compound growth rate of 1432 percent. The company’s measurement of its active subscriber base is done by having a subscriber only being defined as “ active” if that subscriber had a chargeable event in the last 30 days, the company said.

Digicel’s CEO Colm Delves said, “Digicel’s progress in 2006 reinforced our position as the largest GSM provider in the Caribbean region, with sustained growth in our existing markets and unrivalled growth through our entrance into new markets, such as Haiti, Trinidad Tobago, Guyana and El Salvador.”