Digicel Group said Tuesday that its subscriber base has hit 10 million customers in the 32 markets in which it does business globally.

The Caribbean, where Digicel launched off in 2001, remains its largest operating base, accounting for 72 per cent, or 7.2 million customers, at June 2009.

Digicel, which was founded by Irish billionaire Denis O'Brien, also operates in Central America and the Pacific.

The majority of new business has come, the company indicated, from its expansion into Honduras and Panama last year. The two markets added 1.4 million subscribers, as did its six Pacific operations.

"The total of 10 million subscribers," said Digicel, " equates to a compound annual growth rate of 40 per cent over the last two years."

4G NETWORK

Jamaica remains one of the company's biggest and most lucrative markets, and the country operation is making new plans to grow through the build-out of a 4G network to deliver faster broadband services, both fixed and mobile.

The company, which secured the 4G licence last month, has now hired a Chinese firm, ZTE Corp, to develop, Digicel said, a full turnkey solution for phase one of its 2.5GHz Mobile WiMAX solution.

"Under the agreement, ZTE will install a nationwide, high-speed, high-capacity 4G network across all 14 parishes of Jamaica, covering 60 per cent of the population at launch," Digicel said.

The new network represents an initial investment of US$22.7 million (J$2 billion) for Digicel.

The company is projecting that its WiMAX service will be on the market by mid-2010.

business@gleanerjm.com