Digicel is a mobile phone network provider covering parts of Oceania, Central America, and the Caribbean regions. The company is owned by Irishman Denis O'Brien, is incorporated in Bermuda, and based in Jamaica. It provides mobile services in 26 countries and territories throughout the Caribbean and Central America with more than six million wireless users. Meanwhile its sister operation Digicel Pacific to date (June 2010) operates in seven markets in the South Pacific (Fiji, French Polynesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu).^[1] The company's largest competitor in the Caribbean region is LIME and Claro. In March 2011, Digicel sold its operations in Honduras and El Salvador to Mexican telecom giant America Movil, in turn America Movil sold all of its operations in Jamaica to Digicel. The latter actions strengthened America Movil's dominance of the Latin American market, while Digicel strengthened its hold on its domestic market. On March 30th, 2012, Digicel has made the acquisition of Comcel / Voila, its main competitor in Haiti for 97 million dollars.

History[link]

Digicel, first established April, 2001 in Jamaica grew to 100,000 customers in approximately 100 days. In the ten years since the initial launch, Digicel's Jamaican customer base has grown to over two million users. In Haiti, where they launched operations in May 2006, the company now has 2.4 million customers making Haiti Digicel's largest customer base to date. Digicel is 100% owned by Irish entrepreneur Denis O'Brien. The company has a marketshare of over 70% in Jamaica.(Digicel makes cellphone connection in Jamaica)

Competitive Issues with Incumbents[link]

The majority of Digicel networks start up in countries where the telecommunications market has been newly liberalised. As a result there have been numerous rows between Digicel executives and former state incumbent operators over interconnect agreements. This has led to Digicel taking some incumbent operators to court.^[2][3]

Digicel Expansion[link]

In 2006, Digicel expanded into the South American mainland as well as the Pacific. On September 2006, Digicel acquired an unrelated mobile phone provider Digicel Holdings in El Salvador, rebranding it as El Nuevo Digicel. Digicel El Salvador has now overtaken Claro as number two operator in the country. In December 2007, Digicel won a highly competitive bid for a mobile license in Honduras and Digicel won a licence to operate in Panama in May 2008. Digicel launched in Honduras and the British Virgin Islands in November 2008 and in Panama in December 2008.

In 2007 Digicel also expanded their presence in South America and in the country of Guyana, acquiring U*Mobile, now rebranded as Digicel Guyana Ltd as well as launching in Suriname (December 2007) and French Guiana (June 2006). Digicel now operates in 32 markets across the Caribbean, Central America and Pacific.

Digicel Pacific[link]

Digicel's sister operation in the Pacific Islands region currently operates in Samoa and in Papua New Guinea running at 900mhz GSM with GPRS & Edge data services and in PNG Digicel is now rolling out 3G UMTS/HSDA also data services, also via 900mhz), Vanuatu, Tonga, Fiji, Nauru as well as an experimental licence in the Solomon Islands and Tahiti.^[4] Digicel Fiji on 3 November 2010 changed its logo with a shade of blue in the last letters "cel". The blue colour represents the background colour of the Fiji flag and coincided with Digicel Fiji's new ad campaign slogan "Fiji Matters To Us".^[5]

Digicel Mobile Money launched in Fiji in July 2010 with subsequent deployments in Tonga (January 2011), Samoa (March 2011), Vanuatu (July 2011) and Nauru and Papua New Guinea in progress. In Vanuatu, similar to other countries, Digicel reduced the cost of mobile phone ownership dramatically making it available to a much larger number of the population. At launch the cost of a phone was 500 vatu compared to the over 1000 vatu for the incumbent operator Telecom Vanuatu Limited (TVL) with its Smile network.

In addition Digicel was the first to deploy mobile money services in these countries^[6] creating an ecosystem of agents that includes the main commercial banks ANZ Bank, BSP, Westpac, National Bank Vanuatu as well as key money movers such as PostFiji and VanuatuPost. The service has been supported by The Pacific Financial Inclusion Program, AusAid and GSM Association's Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) initiative.^[7]

Digicel Caribbean[link]

On Tuesday 8 February 2011, Digicel, has taken a controlling stake in Netxar Technologies, the leading systems integrator in the Caribbean region.^[8]

Partnership with Vodafone[link]

On 6 February 2007, Digicel signed a three-year partnership agreement with Vodafone. Though both will remain separate and independent companies, the agreement, which includes Digicel's sister operation in Samoa, will result in the offering of new roaming capabilities. The two groups will also become preferred roaming partners of each other.^[9][10]

What is interesting to note, is that as well as being partners, Digicel and Vodafone are also rival operators in Fiji, where Digicel Fiji recently launched, and Vodafone owns a minority (49%) stake in Vodafone Fiji.

Digicel Foundation[link]

Digicel and its shareholders set up the first of its foundations in Jamaica in 2004 - they have been actively involved in charitable work throughout the Caribbean funding projects in the area of Education, Sports & Culture, Environment and Special Needs as well as providing assistance after Hurricane Ivan devastated many of the islands, especially Grenada and the Cayman Islands.^{[citation needed]}

To date the Digicel Foundation in Jamaica has allocated US$13 million to sustainable development community projects in the country. The Jamaica Foundation has established a programme called the Enrichment Initiative, which aims to assist in achieving the Millennium Development Goal of 100% literacy by 2015. In partnership with the Ministry of Education, the Enrichment Initiative has become a key intervention of the Government of Jamaica in addressing literacy at the primary school level and involves using technology and innovative teaching methods to identify and then provide one-on-one attention to children who present a learning challenge in Grades 1-3. With Enrichment Centres and Mobile Enrichment Carts in over 50 primary schools across the country, the students have shown an average movement of two (2) grade levels per year. The Foundation was awarded the 2011 American Chamber of Commerce Award for Corporate Social Responsibility as a result of the work it has and continues to do in education.

Digicel has also established Foundations in two of its other markets - Haiti and Papua New Guinea. In Haiti the Digicel Foundation built 20 primary schools in its first year. Digicel promised $5 million Aid to Haiti after an earthquake struck Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010. The company has been responsible for several major commitments to re-building Haiti, namely the complete restoration of the historic Iron Market and a commitment to build a new hotel to further encourage economic growth in the capital.

Digicel Foundation in Papua New Guinea is committed to community development through the sustainable building of Community Learning Centres (CLC) which provide education to children who would normally not have access to it by ensuring that there is proper infrastructure in place for the students to learn in a conducive environment. The PNG Foundation also provides mobile health clinics reaching the remote areas of the Highlands and has been instrumental in reducing the number of infant/mother related deaths in childbirth.

Caribbean and Central American Operations[link]

The Caribbean and Central American operations of Digicel Group (December 2008).

Digicel Caribbean & Central American Territories

Territory	GSM & CDMA Frequencies		Local Sites
Anguilla	900/1900 MHz	1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda	850/900 MHz		Digicel Antigua & Barbuda
Aruba	900/1800 MHz	1900 MHz	Digicel Aruba
Barbados	900/1800/1900 MHz	1900 MHz	Digicel Barbados
Bermuda	1900 MHz	1900 MHz	Digicel Bermuda
Bonaire	900/1800 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel Bonaire
Curaçao	900/1800/1900 MHz	1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel Curaçao
Dominica	900/1900 MHz	1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel Dominica
El Salvador	900 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel El Salvador
French Guiana	900/1800 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel French Windies & French Guiana
Grenada	900/1800/1900 MHz	1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel Grenada
Guadeloupe	900/1800 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel French Windies & French Guiana
Guyana	900 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel Guyana
Haiti	1800 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel Haiti
Honduras (Launched November 2008)	1900 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel Honduras
Cayman Islands	850/900/1800/1900 MHz	1900 MHz	Digicel Cayman Islands
Jamaica	900/1800/1900 MHz	1900 MHz	Digicel Jamaica
Martinique	900/1800 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel French Windies & French Guiana
Panama (launched December 2008)	1900 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel Panamá
Saint Kitts and Nevis	900/1800/1900 MHz	1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel Saint Kitts & Nevis
Saint Lucia	900/1800/1900 MHz	1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel St. Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	900/1800/1900 MHz	1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel Saint Vincent & the Grenadines
Suriname	900 MHz	NO CDMA	Digicel Suriname
Turks and Caicos Islands	900/1900 MHz	1900 MHz (planned)	Digicel Turks & Caicos
Trinidad and Tobago	850/1900 MHz	1900 MHz	Digicel Trinidad & Tobago

References[link]

External links[link]

• Digicel Homepage
• Babble Rouser - By Bernard Condon 07.17.08, 6:00 PM ET - Forbes Magazine
• Digicel Suriname License - Caribbean Net News (April 17, 2007)
• Digicel among three bidding for Colombia's third-largest cellular company (September 1, 2006) - Barbados Advocate
• Digicel to build US$10-million Caribbean headquarters in Kingston (April 30, 2006) - Jamaica Observer Newspaper
• Digicel marks five year anniversary with record growth (April 22, 2006) - Caribbean Net News
• Digicel continues expansion (August 26, 2005) - Barbados Advocate
• Denis O'Brien, visionary philanthropist embraces employee ownership' by Jean Lowrie-Chin (April 2006) - Jamaica Observer
• Digicel racks up US$74M loss - Nation News (October 9, 2008)
• Digicell vehicle tracking for fleet management - South Africa
• Digicel Limited Closes $300M Bond Issue (December 2010) - Jamaica News Bulletin

Denis O'Brien (born 19 April 1958 in County Cork) is an Irish businessman.^[1].

Early Life[link]

An Arts graduate of University College Dublin, O'Brien has received a MBA in corporate finance from Boston College in 1982,^[2] and was later given an honorary doctorate by University College Dublin.^{[3][clarification needed]}

O'Brien has involvement with various communications companies at national and international level. He set up and chaired the Esat Digifone consortium which won a mobile phone licence in the 1990s in what would become controversial circumstances despite claims to this day that theirs was the best bid.^[4] The Moriarty Tribunal found that in its opinion it was almost beyond doubt that his winning of the contract was due to payments he made to Michael Lowry, the then communications minister, who unduly influenced the bidding process.

The conduct of the tribunal has been criticised by Irish Times columnist John Waters for its propensity to accept gossip as fact.^[5] It was the winning of this contract that formed the basis of his fortune. He established Digicel, a major telecoms provider in the Caribbean. O'Brien formed Communicorp Group Ltd in 1989, with the company currently owning 42 radio stations in 8 European countries, including Ireland's Newstalk, Today FM, Dublin's 98 (formerly 98FM), Spin 1038 and Spin South West.

In addition, O'Brien has founded the international commercial aircraft company Aergo Capital Limited - registered in Dublin, with offices in Nairobi, Singapore, Santiago and Johannesburg. He is a leading shareholder in both Sterling Energy and in Sir Anthony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media (IN&M). He is a resident of Malta, having moved there for tax purposes after previously living in Portugal, also for tax purposes.

Career[link]

Mobile phone entrepreneur[link]

In 1995, O'Brien set up and chaired the Esat Digifone consortium which submitted a bid for the second Irish GSM mobile phone license. Esat Digifone's bid defeated five other applicants, some of whom included major international operators, in controversial circumstances which became the subject of investigation by the Moriarty Tribunal.^[6] The Esat Digifone consortium was 40% owned by O'Brien's interests, 40% owned by Telenor, the Norwegian state telecoms operator, with the balance being owned by International Investment and Underwriting (IIU), an investment vehicle owned by Dermot Desmond.

On 7 November 1997, Esat Telecom Group plc held an initial public offering and was listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange, and NASDAQ Stock Markets. In 1999, difficulties arose between O'Brien and Telenor over how Esat Digifone should be operated.^{[citation needed]} Telenor attempted to remove O'Brien as chairman of Esat Digifone and remove the Esat name from the company.^{[citation needed]} Esat retaliated by threatening to sue Telenor, and offered to buy out the Norwegian company.^{[citation needed]} Eventually, in November 1999, Telenor bid for the entire share capital of Esat Telecom Group plc as a way of resolving the situation. The bid was rejected by the Esat board and so became a hostile takeover attempt. In order to defend against the takeover, British Telecommunications plc (now BT Group plc) made a friendly takeover offer^{[citation needed]} for the company in January 2000, which was backed by the Esat board. Esat became a wholly owned subsidiary of BT and was delisted from the stock market. O'Brien personally netted €317 million from the sale.^[7]

After exiting the Irish mobile phone market, O'Brien started to compete for mobile phone licenses in the Caribbean through his company Digicel.^[8] Digicel now has in excess of eleven million mobile phone subscribers in the Caribbean, Central America and Pacific.^[8] He set up a new subsidiary Digicel Group Ltd. and via a bonds issue, acquired the entire holding of Digicel Limited.^{[citation needed]} O'Brien is involved in the Pacific with operations in Samoa, Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea^[9]

As the owner of Haiti's largest telecom company, Digicel, O'Brien pledged an immediate €3.5 million of his money to assist desperate Haitians within hours of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.^[10] Two of Digicel's 900 staff members in Haiti died in the earthquake.^[11] Digicel is Haiti's largest single investor.^[12] Digicel's headquarters was one of the few buildings in the region to survive unharmed.^[13] He was appointed goodwill ambassador for Port-au-Prince by the city's mayor and deputy mayor in recognition of his efforts to rebuild Haiti and attract foreign direct investment in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake on January 12, and on behalf of the Clinton Global Initiative. He is Chairman of the Haiti Action Network, which coordinates the activities of approximately 80 support organisations in Haiti.^[12] Most recently, Denis O'Brien reconstructed the iconic Iron Market in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, which was the first public building in the city to be rebuilt since the earthquake and has become a symbol of the city's recovery.^[14]

Involvement in the Moriarty Tribunal[link]

The Moriarty Tribunal's second and final report found that Michael Lowry, the then energy and communications minister in Ireland, assisted Denis O'Brien in his bid to secure a mobile phone contract for Esat Digifone, a key foundation of Mr O'Brien's personal wealth. The tribunal found that this happened after Lowry received a $50,000 payment from O'Brien via a circuitous route involving a complex arrangement of third parties and offshore accounts. It said that it was “beyond doubt” that Mr Lowry gave “substantive information to Denis O'Brien, of significant value and assistance to him in securing the [mobile] licence” during at least two meetings between the two.^[15]

Denis O'Brien has rejected the findings set out in the Moriarty Tribunal report calling it "fundamentally flawed" as it is based on the opinions and theories of Mr Justice Moriarty and his legal team.^[16] Mr O’Brien said Mr Justice Moriarty had admitted to making “two not insignificant errors” and that these had been used to substantiate false theories. “I believe it is unprecedented in the history of this country that a High Court judge would make such fundamental errors which went to the heart of the credibility and integrity of a tribunal process,” Mr O’Brien said. Mr O’Brien said it was “incumbent on the judiciary to investigate the conduct of Mr Justice Moriarty and the tribunal legal team for the manner in which they conducted themselves”.^[17]

On 15 October 2011, Today FM confirmed Sam Smyth's Sunday radio show was being dropped. He had been presenting it for 14 years. Smyth had previously offended his bosses by commenting in a newspaper and on television about Today FM owner's Denis O'Brien's involvement in the Moriarty Tribunal. Smyth said on air the next morning that he had been told not to talk about the end of his show and stopped one of his guests from talking about it too "before someone comes downstairs and pulls a wire we better move onto something else."^[18] The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said it was concerned at the development.^[19] The Irish Independent, of which Denis O'Brien is a leading shareholder, reported that Anton Savage was being lined up to replace Sam Smyth.^[20]

Radio entrepreneur[link]

Communicorp Group Ltd was formed by O'Brien in 1989. The Group's radio operations launched in Ireland in the same year and followed with stations in the Czech Republic in 1992. Based in Dublin, Ireland, Communicorp is a major player in the Irish media market.^{[citation needed]}

The company now owns 42 radio stations in 8 countries across Europe, including Ireland: Today FM, Dublin's 98 (Formerly 98FM), Newstalk, Spin 1038 and Spin South West.^{[citation needed]}

O'Brien was the highest bidder for the Irish operations of Emap, which added Today FM, FM104 and Highland Radio to their control, but due to a competition authority decision, Communicorp was required to sell-on FM104 and Highland Radio.^{[citation needed]}

Aircraft leasing[link]

In 1999, Denis O'Brien founded Aergo Capital Limited - registered in Dublin, with offices in Nairobi, Singapore, Santiago and Johannesburg. It owns and operates a fleet of 103 commercial aircraft. The company is valued at $250 Million USD and has debts in the region of $166 Million USD.^{[citation needed]} O'Brien controls about 83% of Aergo and, along with his father, sits on the company's 6 strong board. Aergo Capital's clients include Alitalia, Jet Airways, South African Airways, KLM and DHL. In July 2008, Aergo acquired the Safair aircraft-leasing division of Imperial Holdings for €110 Million. Aergo will take over the division's 33 planes and will lease a further nine aircraft from the parent company.^{[citation needed]}

Sterling Energy[link]

Denis O'Brien is a shareholder in AIM-listed Sterling Energy. The company has production in the United States and a wide portfolio of exploration interests, mostly in West Africa.^{[citation needed]}

Media shareholding[link]

In January 2006, O'Brien took a stake in Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media (IN&M). As of 25 March 2008, he holds 175,053,996 ordinary shares of €0.30, which represents 22.15% of the total number of voting shares of the company.^[21] This compares to O'Reilly's family stake of 28.2%. At the beginning of June 2007, O'Reilly tabled a resolution to strengthen rules on the disclosure of beneficial interests.^{[citation needed]} This was regarded as a defensive measure that would empower IN&M to monitor any additional accumulation of shares in the company. The resolution passed and empowers IN&M to withhold dividends from investors who do not comply with a request for information on the ownership of a holding of shares.^{[citation needed]}

O'Brien, speaking on RTÉ Radio, described the resolution as a "retrograde" measure, saying that the resolution was designed to protect the interests of O'Reilly's family against a hostile bidder.^[22]

Other interests[link]

O'Brien was Chairman of the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games on the occasion when the games were held in Ireland, and on the U.S. Board of Concern Worldwide.

In September 2005, O'Brien was named Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ireland. Simultaneously, he moved his residence from Portugal to Malta, for tax avoidance reasons. He resigned from the position of Deputy Governor Bank of Ireland, and also as a member of the Bank's board or court, on 12 September 2006.^[23] The Bank of Ireland issued a statement describing his resignation as due to "his growing international business interests together with the demands of an extensive travel schedule, meant that he could no longer devote the time required to the ever increasing workload of the court."^[24] O'Brien has also resigned from the Norkom Group and the UCD Smurfit School of Business. His spokesman said that the resignations were unconnected with the work of the Moriarty Tribunal.^{[citation needed]}

O'Brien is a member of the Bilderberg group^{[25][dead link]} and Trilateral Commission.^[26]

On 13 February 2008, the chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland, John Delaney, confirmed that O'Brien had agreed to part fund the wages of the Irish football manager Giovanni Trapattoni.^[27]

In 2011, he provided money for the campaign of Mary Davis ahead of the Irish presidential election.^[28]

Personal wealth[link]

According to the Sunday Independent's Rich List 2012 (March 2012), O'Brien has made himself a fortune of €3.0 billion.^[29]

Move to Malta[link]

O'Brien had considered the flotation of Digicel on the New York Stock Exchange and he has taken up residence in Malta. Malta charges no tax on worldwide assets or income brought in by permanent residents.^[30] Residence, for tax purposes, means renting or buying a property with a minimum value and visiting Malta at least once within one year of becoming a resident.^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

• Dublin's 98
• East Coast FM
• Digicel

References[link]

External links[link]

• Profile of Denis O'Brien at Digicel web site
• "Don't Worry, Be Happy" Article in Forbes - March 2007