Telecoms firm enjoys days in Caribbean sun
THE excitement had been building for months. Extra police were drafted in for the event, while in the city of Port of Spain as many hundreds, and maybe even thousands, queued from the early hours to ensure they did not miss a thing.
It was not a political moment, or even a visit by a rock star or actor, but the launch of a new mobile phone network.
Over the past week, tens of thousands of ‘Trinnys’ have been flocking to more than 200 new phone stores across Trinidad & Tobago to sign up to Digicel - the pan-Caribbean network owned by Denis O’Brien.
On Independence Square in downtown Port of Spain, businesspeople queued alongside housewives and teenagers.
The launch of Digicel in Trinidad & Tobago comes nearly seven years after Mr O’Brien first turned his attention to the country. As the battle for control of Esat Telecom raged in late 1999, part of Denis O’Brien’s mind had shifted to a new venture.
Several countries in the Caribbean were about to open their mobile phone markets to new competition.
While Digicel had won a licence as far back as 1999, delays meant that Jamaica was the first country of call.
Since then it has become the largest mobile network on the island and in many other parts of the Caribbean.
The success of Digicel has been extraordinary. It now runs mobile services in 16 Caribbean countries and along the way has become the largest operator in the region. Everywhere Digicel has gone, Mr O’Brien says, it has “rolled over the opposition”. He says its business plan is very simple: a €1.2 billion investment in its network to deliver full coverage across the islands, cheaper prices and good services. The opposition, British company Cable & Wireless, which had a monopoly dating back to colonial times, simply couldn’t compete, Mr O’Brien added.
New figures provided by Digicel this week reveal that as of the end of March this year, the company had more than two million subscribers, which generated revenues of around €495 million.
While the income of many in the Caribbean is quite low, Mr O’Brien said the average revenue per user (ARPU) is quite high, rising to €22.38 per month, which is on a par with many European countries.
Later this month, Digicel will launch in Haiti. The country has a population of 10 million, but is desperately poor, so the investment is a risk. And a further 10 Caribbean countries will also get the Digicel experience.
But it does not end there. A scouting team from Digicel has been in the Pacific Rim region. A licence to run in Samoa has been secured, and it is waiting to hear in the next few days if the licence in Fiji will come through.
Mr O’Brien was coy about what he intends to do with the company. Asked if a stock market flotation of Digicel is on the cards, Mr O’Brien said nothing has been ruled out.
But, Mr O’Brien, who famously netted nearly €300m from the sale of his stake in Esat to British Telecom in 2000, was adamant that Digicel was “the best investment I have ever made”.
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