Digicel was founded in 2001 by Irish entrepreneur Denis O'Brien. The company launched in April 2001 in Jamaica.[6] In March 2003, Digicel expanded to St. Lucia and St. Vincent.[7] In 2005, Digicel purchased Cingular Wireless’ Caribbean and Bermudan operations.[8]
In April 2006, Digicel launched its services in Trinidad and Tobago.[9] In May 2006, Digicel began operations in Haïti.[10] Between 2006 and 2008, Digicel expanded into the Central American mainland, as well as the Pacific.[10][11] In September 2006, it acquired an unrelated mobile phone provider: Digicel Holdings in El Salvador.[12]
In 2007, Digicel acquired U*Mobile in Guyana,[13] and launched in Suriname in December.[14]
OUR court rulings
In April 2002, Digicel received permission from Jamaica's then-minister of industry, commerce and technology, Phillip Paulwell, to disregard the interconnectivity fee ceiling issued by the Offices of Utilities Regulation (OUR).[15] Following a judicial review, it was determined that Paulwell did not have the power to make this decision.[15] Digicel appealed the ruling to the Jamaican Supreme Court in 2003 and won.[15] OUR appealed the decision to the appellate court, which ruled Paulwell's decision was outside his powers and OUR didn't have to comply with Paulwell's directive.[15] Digicel appealed to the Privy Council, Jamaica's final court of appeal, which upheld the appellate court's decision in 2007.[15]
Digicel appealed the decision to the United Kingdom Privy Council.[15] In January 2010, the Council ruled in favour of the OUR, meaning LIME (formerly Cable & Wireless Jamaica) was allowed to keep the J$340 million Digicel had been ordered to pay them by the Jamaican courts.[15] In 2015, LIME's parent company acquired Columbus Communications and decided to adopt the brand name FLOW for its consumer-facing business, replacing the LIME name.[16] As of May 2016, the LIME name was fully discontinued.[17]
2010–present
Digicel Mobile Money, a mobile banking service, was launched in Fiji in July 2010.[18] Also in 2010, Digicel launched TchoTcho, a cash app for money transfers to phones in Haiti.[19] In 2011, Mobile Money in Fiji was expanded to allow transfers to and from Australia and New Zealand at no cost.[20]
In February 2011, Digicel took a controlling stake in Netxar Technologies, a leading systems integrator in the Caribbean region.[21] In March, Digicel announced that it was selling its operations in Honduras and El Salvador to Mexican telecom company América Móvil, and América Móvil was selling its operations in Jamaica to Digicel.[22] In March 2012, Digicel acquired Comcel/Voila, its main competitor in Haiti.[10]
In May 2012, the Tax Authority Jamaica (TAJ) visited Digicel's offices in New Kingston with an order from the Jamaican Supreme Court to look for data regarding the company's payment of the general consumption tax.[23] A couple of weeks later, TAJ and Digicel agreed to have more dialogue surrounding the situation.[24]
In October 2012, América Móvil announced it wouldn't acquire Digicel's operations in El Salvador.[25]
Digicel IMAX theater in the suburb of Woodbrook in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
In June 2013, Digicel announced that it would invest $9 billion in a mobile phone network in Myanmar, if granted a licence.[26] However, Digicel lost the licence bid to Telenor and Ooredoo.[27][28]
Digicel acquired SAT Telecom, a cable and internet company in Dominica, in February 2014 and relaunched the brand as Digicel Play in October of that year.[29][30][31] In September, Digicel acquired Telstar Cable Limited in Jamaica.[32]
In 2015, TchoTcho was relaunched as MonCash with additional banking services.[19] In September 2016, Digicel Play launched as Play Go, a live streaming service.[33]
In July 2017, Digicel bought 16.6% of Tonga Cable from the government.[34]
In January 2019, O'Brien named Jean-Yves Charlier as chief executive, replacing Michael Willner.[35] Jean-Yves stepped down as the Group CEO of Digicel in July 2020, and Oliver Coughlin was named the CEO for Digicel's Caribbean and Latin American business.[36][37]
In May 2020, Digicel announced plans to restructure its debt.[38] The restructuring plan was approved by Digicel's bondholders and completed in June 2020.[39] As part of the exchange, O'Brien contributed $50 million in assets to Digicel, consisting of the company's Jamaican headquarters and $25 million in cash.[40]
In November 2020, Digicel announced that, in its financial second quarter to the end of September, its earnings have dropped due to impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.[41]
In October 2021, Digicel announced the sale of its Pacific operations to Telstra Group, an Australian telecommunications company.[42][43] The sale was estimated at US$1.6 billion.[42][43]
However this was thrown into doubt in March 2022 when the Papua New Guinea government imposed a retrospective tax of over $100m on the company.[44]
In September 2022, credit rating service Fitch issued a warning of a potential debt default.[45]The Irish Times suggested "there's little or no equity value in Digicel to chase".[46]
On November 29, 2023. Rajeev Suri was appointed as the new Chairman of Digicel Group.[48]
Corporate sponsorship
Digicel is a sponsor of Caribbean, Central American and Asia-Pacific sports teams, including the Special Olympics teams in these regions.[49][50][51] From 2005 to 2018, Digicel sponsored The West Indies cricket team.[52]
In 2008, Digicel announced that they would sponsor the Vanuatu national cricket team, as well as the National Rugby 15s and 7s teams.[53] That same year, Digicel became the sponsor of the Digicel Cup for rugby in Fiji.[54]
In April 2013, Digicel was announced as the first global sponsor of the 2013 inaugural tournament for the Caribbean Premier League.[55]
In 2021, Digicel sponsored the PlayGo Emerge Competition for short films made in the Caribbean.[56]
The Digicel Foundation is active in Jamaica, Haïti, Trinidad and Tobago[58] and Papua New Guinea.[59] In Haïti, the Digicel Foundation helped rebuild after the 2010 Haïtian earthquake struck Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010.[60] Projects have included building primary schools and restoring the historic Iron Market.[61]
Digicel Group’s mobile operations
The following is a list of Digicel Group's Pacific operations. These operations are headed by an office in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, as well as one in Singapore. Digicel's Pacific operations were acquired by Australian telecommunications company Telstra on July 14, 2022.[62]
The following is a list of the North Atlantic, Caribbean and Central American operations of Digicel Group. All report to Digicel Group's headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica.
Telecommunications in Haiti Internet, radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones.
Telecommunications in Jamaica include the fixed and mobile telephone networks, radio, television, and the Internet.
Telefónica, S.A. is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company with registered office and headquarters located in two different places, both in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. It provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadband, and subscription television, operating in Europe and the Americas.
The Caribbean Community is an intergovernmental organisation that is a political and economic union of 15 member states and five associated members throughout the Americas, The Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean. It has the primary objective to promote economic integration and cooperation among its members, ensure that the benefits of integration are equitably shared, and coordinate foreign policy. The organisation was established in 1973, by its four founding members signing the Treaty of Chaguaramas. Its primary activities involve:
2G, or second-generation cellular network technology, marks the transition from analog to digital communication in mobile networks. Defined by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) under the GSM standard, which became the first globally adopted framework for mobile communications, 2G was first commercially launched in 1991 by Radiolinja in Finland. Following its introduction, the earlier mobile wireless network systems were retroactively designated as 1G. 2G networks were primarily designed to support voice calls and Short Message Service (SMS), with later advancements such as General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) enabling basic data services, including email and limited internet access. Unlike 1G networks, which used analog radio signals, 2G networks utilized digital radio signals for communication between mobile devices and base stations. This transition to digital technology enabled the implementation of encryption for voice calls and data transmission, significantly improving the security of mobile communications while also increasing capacity and efficiency compared to earlier analog systems.
Denis O'Brien is an Irish billionaire businessman, and the founder and owner of Digicel. He was listed among the World's Top 200 Billionaires in 2015 and was Ireland's richest native-born citizen for several years. His business interests have also extended to aircraft leasing, utilities support (Actavo), petroleum, football, and healthcare. As former chairman of the Esat Digifone consortium, O'Brien was questioned by the Moriarty Tribunal, which investigated the awarding of a mobile phone licence to Esat, among other things.
The Caribbean Cup was a regional football competition for senior national teams from the Caribbean. It was organized by the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), the regional body for the Caribbean zone under CONCACAF. The tournament was held from 1989 to 2017, as the successor competition of the CFU Championship and also served as a qualification method for the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Movistar is a major telecommunications provider owned by Telefónica, operating in Spain and Hispanic American countries. It is the largest provider of landline, broadband, mobile services, and pay television in Spain. Movistar is the second-largest wireless carrier in Mexico, with 25.8 million subscribers as of January 2020.
The Claro Company, or simply Claro, is a Latin American telecommunications company, part of América Móvil, a Mexican telecom group. Claro serves customers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico and Uruguay. Its Mexican operations are branded as Claro Mexico. The company's name means "bright," "clear," and also "of course," in both Portuguese and Spanish.
América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. is a Mexican telecommunications corporation headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico. It is the 7th largest mobile network operator in the world in terms of equity subscribers, as well as one of the largest corporations in the world. América Móvil is a Forbes Global 2000 company. As of 31 December 2023, América Móvil had 310.1 million wireless subscribers, and 73.7 million fixed revenue generating units.
Caribbean360 is the largest online news aggregator for the Caribbean. Started in 2005, it is based in Bridgetown, Barbados. Specializing in news sources from the nations of the Caribbean Community, it competes with One Caribbean Media and the Caribbean Net News. As of 2009, it drew from 35 print and electronic publishers in 28 countries.
Trilogy International Partners, LLC is an American wireless telecommunications company based in Bellevue, Washington. Listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, it operates through its international partially-owned subsidiaries 2degrees in New Zealand and Viva in Bolivia.
LIME, an acronym for 'Landline, Internet, Mobile, Entertainment', was a communications provider owned by the British based Cable & Wireless Communications for its operations in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Turks & Caicos in the Caribbean.
The Caribbean Premier League is an annual Twenty20 cricket tournament held in the Caribbean. It was founded by Cricket West Indies in 2013 to replace the Caribbean Twenty20 as the premier Twenty20 competition in the Caribbean. It is currently sponsored by Republic Bank Limited and consequently officially named the Republic Bank CPL. The inaugural tournament was won by the Jamaica Tallawahs who defeated the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the final.
Flow is a trade name of the Caribbean former telecommunications provider Cable & Wireless Communications used to market cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services. Flow also replaced the UTS brand in the Dutch and French Caribbean, following their acquisition of United Telecommunications Service (UTS).
GB Group S.A. is a diversified business conglomerate based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It is a parent company of over a dozen industrial and trading companies with operations concentrated in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Saint Maarten and offices in the United States collaborating with more than 4,000 employees and in more than 15 countries companywide in business organizations.
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