Digicel
achieved a number of key milestones in 2007. These include:
Celebrating One-Year Anniversary of Digicel Haiti:
Digicel celebrated its first year of operations in Haiti –
gaining more than 1.8 million Haitian subscribers – and
played a pivotal role in the increase of mobile penetration
rates within this market. When Digicel Haiti launched in May
2006, fixed and mobile penetrations rates were five percent.
In 2007, mobile penetration increased to 35 percent.
Winning Mobile Licenses in New Markets: In
December 2007, Digicel was granted a mobile license to
operate a GSM network in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).
The British Virgin Islands will become Digicel’s 24th market
and the company has earmarked US $15 million as its initial
investment to build a state-of-the-art network. With a
thriving financial services and tourism industry, the
British Virgin Islands has one of the most prosperous
economies in the Caribbean. In addition, Digicel Central
America Holdings Limited, through its wholly owned
subsidiary, Digicel Honduras S.A. de C.V., won a competitive
bid for a license to operate a GSM mobile network in
Honduras. Significant investment in Honduras is planned to
build a world-class network and operation that is set to
stimulate growth in the mobile market by increasing mobile
penetration within the next five years from approximately
38% to 75%. Honduras has a total population of close to 7.5
million.
Expanding the Product Portfolio: Exclusive to Digicel
and called “Coral,” the company introduced a sleek, new line
of mobile handsets accessible to consumers across almost all
Digicel markets. The Coral phones reinforced Digicel’s
continued efforts to increase mobile penetration in key
markets. Manufactured for Digicel by Vodafone in
collaboration with ZTE, the Coral handsets are among the
least expensive on the market. Digicel also expanded its
products portfolio with new BlackBerry Curve devices and a
new “Digicel Vehicle Tracking” system, a GPS vehicle
tracking device for fleet management companies.
Exciting, First-to-Market Technology Innovations:
Digicel is expanding its customer offerings, continuing to
roll out many first-to-market technology innovations such as
its Personal Broadband Service through WiMAX technology.
Pioneering this technology in the Cayman Islands, Digicel’s
Personal Broadband Service enables consumers to access the
Internet from anywhere within their coverage area. Digicel
also launched MobileTV in Jamaica, which allows customers to
enjoy all live, local mobile TV programming.
Strategic Partnerships to Bring Greater Value to
Customers: With a new partnership with Vodafone, the
world’s largest mobile phone company, Digicel expanded its
capacity to offer its customers a wider range of roaming
services as well as a seamless world-class mobile experience
while traveling abroad on each others’ networks. The
companies are working together to jointly develop innovative
products and services, creating cost benefits, greater value
and more solutions for customers. Digicel also has roaming
agreements with 245 partners in 130 countries around the
world.
Diaspora Services: In 2007, significant inroads were
achieved as the company continued offering services that
allow the Caribbean Diaspora communities living abroad to
send airtime credit and purchase phones for family and
friends in the Caribbean. Digicel's CaribFlex allows the
purchase of airtime credit in the UK, Canada and the US for
prepaid customers in Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad, Guyana and
OECS markets. Credit is instantly applied to the prepaid
customers account and the beneficiary notified via text
message. To facilitate this service and the sale of phones
for Haiti, Digicel has signed partnership agreements with
leading money transfer companies including Caribbean Air
Mail (CAM) and UniTransfer.
Digicel Pacific Ltd: Significant inroads were made by
Digicel’s sister company, Digicel Pacific Ltd in rolling out
a seamless pan Pacific GSM network. Digicel launched in
Papua New Guinea in July 2007, leading to a 0.7% growth in
the nations GDP. The Tonga operator TONFON was acquired in
November while Digicel Samoa continues to enjoy steady
growth. The Governments of Fiji, Vanuatu and several other
countries in the Pacific have committed to license Digicel
Pacific Ltd shortly.
"2007 was a phenomenal year of growth for Digicel”, added
Colm Delves. “As we look ahead to 2008, we are very excited
about further strengthening our presence in current markets,
strategically expanding our business operations in new
markets and continuing to bring new technology innovations
and products to all of our customers.”
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