Digicel took center stage in the last month across the Caribbean causing controversy and applause at the same time.

The Irish–owned telco announced it posted a 16% rise in revenues for the first six months of its fiscal 2012, ended September 30, to US$1.24bn.

Digicel Group Limited - which comprises the 30 markets of the Caribbean, El Salvador and the Pacific saw its subscriber base rise 14% year-on-year to 11.1mn, with revenue growth in all of Digicel's major markets including Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Haiti stood out, adding 830,000 new subscribers.

Revenue earned from value-added-services like web browsing and messaging was up 47% year-on-year, helped by strong demand for smartphones.

The results came a day after Digicel announced that it had completed the sale of Digicel Honduras to América Móvil and acquired the latter's Claro Jamaica business.

Digicel is still in the process of selling its El Salvador unit to América Móvil, given that the latter has not accepted the terms imposed by Salvadorian antitrust body SC which set a series of conditions for the acquisition, including that Claro must give up 20 MHz of spectrum.

Digicel continued with its 4G (HSPA+) technology upgrades to its 2.5G EDGE network across the region launching HSPA+ in Barbados on December 7. The operator invested BDS $20mn (US$10mn) in the upgrade and at the launch sold off 4G-compatible devices like smartphones and tablets.

Cable & Wireless Communications (C&WC) is also engaged in upgrading the networks of its various operations to HSPA+ and in December announced that Ericsson was carrying out the upgrade for the Bahamas Telecommunications Company, which C&WC controls.

But not all was rosy for Digicel. A legal feud between Digicel and Bermudean long distance providers over the last few weeks continued to smolder.

In November, Bermuda’s Supreme Court ordered Digicel to cease providing access to its internet-based long distance service after local long distance telephony provider TeleBermuda International started legal proceedings against Digicel, saying it believed the operator had infringed on its class B license in offering long distance ahead of telecoms legislation reform.

Digicel began offering the service under the Digicel brand name through Transact, which it acquired. This led it into competition with TBI and LinkBermuda.

A newspaper article published in December in which the government declared that Digicel’s long distance offering was unlawful incensed Digicel which accused the government and the newspaper of siding with the wealthy vested interests in Bermuda that are opposed to the entrance of competition.

The company declared, “If Digicel and Transact are accused of lowering prices in Bermuda, then we are guilty as charged.”

Digicel’s arrival has definitively heated up the competition.

The company introduced a new internet service for the bargain price of US$9 per month for the first three months.

ISP North Rock Communications launched at the end of November a new 10 Mbps residential internet service for US$129.95 per month and implemented free upgrades to the speeds of its other internet services, adding an extra 500kbps to its 1Mbps, 2Mbps and 3Mbps services and upping its 6Mbps service to 8Mbps and 8Mbps to 10Mbps.

North Rock’s launch followed on the heels of the launch of 8Mbps and 10Mbps services by competitor the Bermuda Telephone Company.

In other news, telco LIME signed an agreement with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) secretariat to provide videoconferencing equipment and services to Jamaica and seven other member countries.


The equipment will supplied installed in Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Vincent, and five other territories, namely, Belize, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad, and Haiti.

Since earlier this year, LIME has been offering videoconferencing in collaboration with Polycom.

Among LIME's first local clients were the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF)Caribbean headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica.

Moving on, the General Conference of Ministers of Telecommunications was held at the Crane beach Resort, St Philip, Barbados from December 6-8.

Speaking during the event, minister in the office of the Prime Minister, Senator Darcy Boyce praised the efforts of member states of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) in passing legislation to combat cyber crime and the interception of communications.

Boyce also called on delegates to ensure that in the transition from analogue to digital television, the cultural and educational value of TV is preserved.

On the issue of ICT, the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (Jampro) and the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) signed a memorandum of understanding for a US$20mn loan facility for investment in the ICT sector.

The facility - which aims to support the expansion of 26 existing business process outsourcing (BPO) operators in Jamaica - will be administered by the DBJ in collaboration with Jampro.

The latter will be responsible for screening investors interested in building ICT facilities, reviewing proposals and referring suitable loan applicants, while the DBJ will conduct due diligence, credit checks and financial evaluation of referred applicants in the approval and monitoring of loans.

It’s rare that Cuba grabs the headlines for a topic related to telecommunications but did in the last week s it launched a social network that looks very similar to Facebook but which can only be used to connect with other Cubans.

Red Social, which is Spanish for social network, is designed as a virtual meeting place for Cuban universities.

In Cuba, internet use is largely limited to academics, students and state workers.

Returning to Digicel, the company’s Haiti's operations said the company ad deployed all the infrastructure necessary to launch a cloud computing offer and expects to go live with the service "soon."

Considering that Haiti is an earthquake prone country, Digicel is taking backup seriously for its cloud computing solution.

The company said it would be looking to consolidate its virtualization strategy in the next 1-2 years

The move is part of a strategy of Digicel’s to move more into offering corporate IT services boosted this year by the acquisition of a controlling stake in Caribbean systems integrator Netxar Technologies.