[NYTr] "We'd love to be in Cuba" - Irish telecom entrepreneur Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:41:59 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit sent by Simon McGuinness - Jul 16, 2007 "We'd love to be in Cuba" - Irish telecom entrepreneur [Denis O'Brien is an Irish entrepreneur who operates the biggest mobile phone network in the Caribbean under the "Digicel" brand. He has 5 million subscribers in 22 Caribbean countries, amounting to 90% of the total regional mobile market. Six years ago he had none. He'd love to get access to Cuba's potential 11 million consumers and sees neither the Cuban government nor the US blockade as necessarily obstacles to his expansion plans. Maybe he knows something we don't? Certainly, Cuba would welcome any maverick capitalist that was willing to break the US embargo on their communication links with the outside world. O'Brien has a high speed network in place just 30 miles from Cuba's shoreline which the Cuban government would love to get access to. Any such development could allow Cubans to access the internet for the first time outside of the very restrictive (and expensive) terms imposed on them by the US blockade, and would allow Russia to retire the aging Sputnik satellite that is Cuba's ONLY current access to the internet. To put this in context, the average American home has access to a faster broadband link than the whole Cuban nation which gives some indication of the struggle Cuba has in accessing the most important global network in the modern world. So much for US commitment to freedom of speech and free trade (Cuba is willing to pay for it). What exactly can the Americans be afraid of - that the truth might get out? -SMcG] The Irish Times - Jul 16, 2007 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/finance/2007/0629/1183047351935.html O'Brien still intends to enter US market Denis O'Brien has not abandoned plans to enter the telecoms industry in the United States in spite of pulling back from that market earlier this year when he restructured his Digicel mobile phone operation in the Caribbean, writes CiarC!n Hancock in Haiti. Speaking in Haiti, Mr O'Brien said he would look again at a launch in the US, probably in 2009. "We haven't given up on America," he said. "We'd like to do it but it'll probably be 18 months to two years away." Mr O'Brien is believed to have considered launching in the US as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) and was planning to float the company on the stock market there. He talked bullishly about launching a "Tet offensive" on the US telecoms market to the international media. This plan was shelved when Mr O'Brien restructured the Digicel business, buying out his fellow shareholders in the Caribbean mobile business in a $2.4 billion (b,1.8 billion) refinancing. That move has given Mr O'Brien 100 per cent control of the Caribbean business, earning him $800 million in the process. "We wanted to focus on making that [ the restructuring] successful," he said. "It was important that we concentrated on that deal for our bondholders, so that they were comfortable with what we were doing." Mr O'Brien said Digicel earned revenues of $1.4 billion last year and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation of "a couple of hundred million dollars". He said its EBITDA would grow substantially this year, as revenues from its mobile operation in Haiti, which launched just over 12 months ago, began to flow through. Digicel has secured 1.5 subscribers in Haiti, its most successful launch to date. It has five million subscribers in 22 markets in the Caribbean. Mr O'Brien was in Haiti to meet a group of Irish entrepreneurs who had travelled there as part of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and were looking at investing in local projects on the impoverished island. Digicel was a part sponsor of the trip, which involved more than 30 Irish business executives and investment agencies north and south. Mr O'Brien said he would also like to expand Digicel's operation in the Caribbean into Cuba, which has a population of 11.4 million and is the only major market not served by the group in the region. "We'd love to be in Cuba," he said. "We'd travelled there a number of times but we haven't been able to do it yet." When asked if the company would have to wait for a change of regime in Cuba, Mr O'Brien said "not necessarily". He said the US trade embargo on Cuba would also not be a stumbling block to Digicel doing business there. "We're not an American company. This is a business based in the Caribbean and run by Irish people." He said an expansion into Cuba would probably be three to four years away. Digicel operates separate entities in central America and the Pacific and has major expansion plans for both areas over the next 12 months. The company relaunched in El Salvador about two months ago, having acquired a business there. "That market is just flying," said Mr O'Brien. Digicel is also eyeing licences in Honduras, Panama and Nicaragua. In the Pacific, Digicel will launch in Papua New Guinea in July and has plans to enter the markets of Fiji, Vanuatu and Kiribati in the next six months. B) 2007 The Irish Times *** The Irish Times - Jul 16, 2007 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/finance/2007/0629/1183047351842.html O'Brien's Digicel targets two million customers by CiarC!n Hancock There are some parts of Haiti that don't have clean, running water, electricity, proper roads or hospitals. Yet there's a Digicel phone mast in virtually every nook and cranny of the impoverished Caribbean state, and Haiti's citizens have embraced the technology lovingly. Just over 12 months after its launch there, Digicel has signed up 1.5 million Haitians, about four times what Denis O'Brien, Digicel's founder and sole shareholder, had hoped for. It is the most successful launch in the Caribbean by Digicel, surpassing Jamaica, where the company has 1.4 million customers. Mr O'Brien hopes to have two million subscribers in Haiti by March, and believes more than half of the estimated 10 million population will ultimately have a mobile phone. The launch is all the more remarkable when you consider that only 53 per cent of Haitians are considered literate, and there is 60 per cent unemployment. "It's been a great success," said Mr O'Brien from Port Salut . "It's exceeded all of our initial expectations." The average spend is low by western standards, only about $12 or $13 a week, but is high in a country where the majority of people are unemployed and most work the land to put food on the table. Digicel employs about 650 people in Haiti. Mr O'Brien acknowledged the poverty in the country and lack of basic utilities and infrastructure, but said Digicel's extensive communications infrastructure could help Haiti in the long term. "It's vital to have a good communications network and it helps make other things possible. Clearly there is a problem with electricity and running water, but having a good communications network can help with these problems. People will now demand fresh water. This has really helped farmers and fishermen in particular, who are often operating in remote areas." Mr O'Brien said he would spend about $300 million in capital investment this year on Digicel, which he is hoping to expand into central America and Pacific islands. The company has been hugely successful since its launch in Jamaica in April 2001, where it had bought a licence for $35 million. It now covers 22 islands, has five million subscribers and is the market leader in most of its markets, wiping the eye of several larger telecoms groups, including Cable & Wireless. The company is estimated to have spent $1.5 billion building its network in the region. Its success has been built around shaking up its market through innovation. In Haiti, Digicel undercut its competitors on the price of phones, abolished charges for receiving calls, introduced per-second billing and made phone-charging stations available around the island, an important move in a country where electricity is not widely accessible. In Europe, these are basic strategies, but in the Caribbean it has revolutionised the way mobile services are marketed. Digicel is now the biggest brand in the sun-kissed region. Counterfeit bags bearing the Digicel brand are available on the black market - a clear sign of a company's success. The company sponsors the West Indies cricket team and the Haiti national soccer side. It even sponsors all of the teams in Haiti national soccer league. The striking red and white brand is on virtually every street corner of Haiti, often painted on a roof or a wall. Mr O'Brien has also been careful to support social projects in each of the markets he has entered, earning the company kudos with local politicians and customers. In Haiti, the company rebuilt the C cole Mixte Lagreho, a primary school situated in a hurricane-ravaged rural part of the country. The school reopened in March, and Mr O'Brien has now set a target of rebuilding 20 schools by March 2008. With Cuba now the only major Caribbean market in which Digicel is not represented, Mr O'Brien is turning his attentions to central America and Pacific islands, where he believes the Digicel model can be replicated. B) 2007 The Irish Times * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================