Victor.Corcoran@digicelgroup.com

Do you believe the Cayman Islands ranks among the leaders in the delivery of telecommunications services in the region? Why or why not?

The Cayman Islands has very advanced telecommunications systems. The liberalisation of the market has resulted in the development of three mobile networks with extensive coverage. Following our purchase of Cingular, Digicel is fortunate to own and operate two of these three networks, giving us unrivalled capacity and incredible redundancy, which is key as a new hurricane season is here. In Cayman we have approximately 50 sites, which equates to nearly one site per thousand people living on the Island (one of the best capacity ratios in the world).

Again I cannot speak for the other networks on the Island, but I do see the comparison reports comparing our network statistics with the other 32 Digicel markets. We in Digicel Cayman are very proud of the fact that at present we successfully handle the highest quantity of voice calls per customer of any of our 32 Digicel networks while maintaining such high standards that we have zero congestion levels. We also consistently have the best Blackberry data handling statistics for all Digicel markets.   

Cayman has four telecom companies including Digicel offering between them a complete range of telecommunications products and services on the Island. Digicel for example can now offer EDGE voice and data, fixed voice and data, residential voice and Internet service, PBX sales and support, advanced data connections such as MPLS and IPLCs and expects to be able to offer virtual office solutions in the coming months.

What do you predict will be the next major advancement in the local telecommunications industry?
It is difficult to predict the future, but at Digicel we continue to invest in the expansion of our existing networks and service ranges, as well as in new technology.  Most recently, we have been increasing the capacity of our mobile EDGE data network and have completed upgrades to our sites on Grand Cayman and are now working on the Sister Islands. We are very happy with the results of this recent upgrade and the feedback from our customers has been extremely positive, in fact I would invite all smart phone users to contact our corporate sales team or visit one of our stores and try out our network.

The other main focus for Digicel in Cayman has been the expansion of our Digicel Business organisation from being a primary mobile focused organisation to a provider of complete telecommunications solutions. This is progressing well; we have brought in new account managers and technical staff to allow us to also provide more specialised products such as IPLC and MPLS circuits. Our strategic partnership with Cisco has also delivered great results in the last few weeks. Digicel is now a Cisco Premier partner. The recent challenging economic times for the Islands have resulted in a huge spike in sales of Cisco Voice over Internet Protocol  PBXs’. Companies that in better economic times were less concerned about  costs are now realising that they can purchase from Digicel a state-of-the-art Cisco PBX for less than the present annual rental charges for outdated equipment from their legacy provider.

Looking to the future, industry watchers are aware that Digicel is  rolling out a WiMAX network in Jamaica. This is the 4G technology presently used by companies such as Clearwire in the States to deliver mobile Internet. 4G can deliver speeds in excess of 10 times the typical 3G speeds. Our sister companies in Bermuda and the French West Indies are in parallel upgrading their networks to 3G+, in true Digicel form they have gone and requested the latest and greatest version of 3G technology. Digicel Cayman is not about to give away any secrets but it is safe to say that we will be monitoring both these projects with interest and considering if either would make sense in Cayman.

What legislative changes would you recommend that could enhance the delivery of information communications technology?
The growth of smart phones and data connections will continue. I personally think it is crazy that today that if a customer of one of the Internet service providers on the Island sends an email to a customer of another, the email will physically be sent to Miami before being sent back to Cayman. I would like for the ICTA to drive forward local interconnect for Internet traffic and emails. The ICTA should be able to mandate this without legislation changes and could start to drive this process forward soon.

What plans over the next year will your company introduce to improve the delivery of your products and services to customers?
Digicel is always providing new and better ways of communicating and better ways to reward and engage our valued customers through our ongoing promotions.  All our customers receive the best value, service and coverage and all subsequent plans revolve around our three brand philosophies. The Cayman Islands can expect bigger and better products, services and promotions for the rest of the year and onwards.

What impact has the economic slowdown had on your business?
We are not immune to the new economic situation in Cayman and have had to adapt accordingly. Like many companies, we are constantly reviewing our cost structure to ensure we continue to be in a position to offer our customers value services at the lowest possible rates.

But overall the downturn has been very positive for Digicel, as for many, moving a phone company is an emotional decision and in the better economic times individuals and companies were happy with the status quo with their legacy provider irrespective of the better value or service offerings we were delivering. Now companies want true value for all their spend and in the last 12 to 16 months we have successfully won a huge quantity of additional business particularly in the corporate and government sectors.

The downturn has also resulted in a renewed focus on ensuring we are delivering the best as an organisation and on looking at new revenue streams as the population of the Island falls. We have successfully launched our partnership with Cisco and this partnership has now won a tender to swap out the complete fixed phone network for the Government’s Portfolio of External Affairs from their legacy provider.

Digicel, being a dynamic organisation that cares for its customers, has managed to absorb the increased costs of operating, without passing it on to our valued customers.  Our Digicel Cayman customers continue to enjoy the same rates as they have over the last years and many of our new products and packages such as our prepaid day pass offers or our CI$30 unlimited voice package or our UCI$60 unlimited voice package actually offer significantly lower rates and better value.

Are there any issues that you believe are preventing the telecommunications industry to advance to the next stage of its development?
The telecommunications industry in the Cayman Islands is in a good position, when compared with what was available 10 years ago. We can compete effectively with any market in the world.

Digicel provides telecommunications support not just at the consumer level, but also to large multi-national corporations within industries such as legal, finance and tourism that require cross-jurisdictional trading of goods and services. If the Cayman Islands was not in a good position to compete technologically, this would have affected the Islands ability to stay viable. Cayman’s ongoing success despite recent challenges is testament to the high quality of telecommunications networks and services that Digicel provides and that the Cayman Islands now have available.

Does your firm support any educational programmes in the schools to encourage Caymanians to enter the telecommunications industry?
Digicel supports a wide range of educational, entertainment, sports and community development programmes. We have an internship system that offers Caymanians the opportunity to join our team each year, and learn about telecommunications from a practical standpoint. This is done in conjunction with our local high schools on an annual basis. We employ a significant number of Caymanians and provide on-the-job training, ensuring their success for upward mobility and personal development.

Digicel at a group level has extensive technical and management training programmes - the most famous being the Digicel DNA and EMBA courses, which many of our staff in Cayman have had the benefit of taking part in. This is in addition to our scholarship programme where each year our employee’s can apply for funding for further education courses they care to take.

Digicel supports a number of community projects organised by private and government organisations. We encourage Caymanians to become involved in the telecommunications sector through our public interface programmes such as workshops and training opportunities in-house.

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