Business View Caribbean - August 2016 67
ca in April 2001, when that country opened its phone
market up for competition against Cable & Wireless,
the large British company and longtime provider of
telecommunications services in the Caribbean. Digi-
cel’s owner is Denis O’Brien, who had founded the
Esat Telecom Group in 1991, to compete against the
former state-owned telephone company in Ireland.
Esat established itself as the number two telecom-
munications company across the full spectrum of tele-
communications services (corporate and residential),
fixed-line, GSMmobile, data and internet services, and
brought real competition and choice to the Irish tele-
communications market.
In order to attract customers in Jamaica, Digicel of-
fered prices less than half of what Cable & Wireless
was charging. It also slashed prices on handsets, then
averaging $200, or even gave them away. It also ex-
tended its network to the country’s less-populated
mountains, beaches, and other remote areas. Its cell
towers were disguised as palm trees in order to blend
in with the local scenery, and, even more unusual,
every time Digicel turned on a new cell phone site, it
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
Digicel – BVI
WHAT:
A provider of communications
technologies
WHERE:
Flagship store in Road Town,
Tortola, BVI
Email
:
