Digicel Tonga confirms two separate undersea cable breaks

Digicel reported that its preliminary technical fault investigation has established that there are two separate undersea cable breaks. The first between TCL cable landing station Sopu, Tongatapu and FINTEL cable landing station in Suva, Fiji. The international cable break is approximately 37km offshore from Tonga. The second cable break is on the domestic cable which is near the area of the recent volcanic activity. The company has engaged the cable repair ship CS Reliance to undertake a full fault assessment as well as determine the safety of a possible cable repair. 

Digicel also confirmed that its domestic network in Tongatapu is active. 

Digicel Regional CEO, Shally Jannif, said; “We know how vital it is at times like this that we keep people connected. We are focused on doing everything we can to ensure that we are able to establish international connectivity with Tonga.”

https://www.digicelgroup.com/to/en/news/2022/jan/18th/network-update-volcanic-eruption.html

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Orange backs Digicel’s Deep Blue One Caribbean cable

Orange announced a financial investment to extend Digicel’s forthcoming Deep Blue One submarine network from Trinidad to French Guiana. 

Deep Blue 1 cable commissioning is planned to begin mid-2023, and is expected to be completed in early 2024. 

The 2,000 km cable installation for Deep Blue One has five branching units, plus the capability to provide connectivity for offshore rigs, with anywhere from two to eight fibre pairs in each segment, offering a minimum of 12 Tbps capacity per fibre pair. The French Guiana leg to Trinidad is 1,600 km long. 

In addition, Orange will act as landing party in Cayenne for the French Guiana branch and will operate the Cable landing station on behalf of Digicel while its subsidiary Orange Marine, will be in charge of laying the cable. 

Orange notes that Deep Blue One will complement its existing, fully-owned 1746 km long “Kanawa” cable, which was commissioned early 2019 as well as Orange’s existing networks based on Americas-2, ECFS, CBUS. 

Digicel says this extension of Deep Blue One will complement its existing Southern Caribbean Fiber network, which has approximately 3,000 km of submarine cable connecting 20 islands in the Eastern Caribbean.

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Digicel appoints Jean-Yves Charlier as CEO

Digicel appointed Jean-Yves Charlier as its new Group Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Charlier previously served as Chief Executive Officer of VEON (formerly Vimpelcom), Chairman and Chief Executive of SFR, France and was also Chief Executive at COLT Telecom.

Charlier’s appointment comes one month after the untimely passing of Digicel Group Chief Executive Officer, Alexander Matuschka von Greiffenclau, 47, who died while on holiday with his family in his native Germany.

Commenting on his appointment, Jean-Yves, said; “I am delighted to be leading a strong set of communication and entertainment operations serving 14 million customers across 31 markets and to be continuing to work closely with the Board and its Chairman, Denis O’Brien. Over the past few years, Digicel has continued to innovate and make significant investments in new internet and media services across the Caribbean, Central America and the Pacific, making an indelible impact, and I am happy to be taking the business forward on these strong foundations.”

In congratulating Jean-Yves on his appointment, Digicel Group Chairman and founder, Denis O’Brien, commented; “Jean-Yves’ exceptional capacity to support continuing growth was reflected in his appointment as Executive Director some months ago, deepening our executive team and facilitating this succession process.”

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Cisco and Digicel target digitization for the Caribbean

Digicel has signed a framework agreement with Cisco for accelerating the digital agenda and existing digitization policies for 26 countries in the Caribbean and Central America. 

The companies agreed to collaborate to develop a digitization vision for each country for both the immediate and the long term, defining areas for implementation and specific projects, such as Healthcare/Telemedicine, Smart Cities, and Connected Schools, as well as to develop an educational strategy based on Cisco Networking Academy. 

"Digitization is a key driver for economic development in any country. Through this partnership with Digicel, our goal is to grow GDP, create new jobs and invest in a sustainable innovation ecosystem across public and private sectors in the Caribbean and Central America," says Alison Gleeson, Senior Vice President of the Americas, Cisco. "The Cisco and Digicel collaboration will map pathways to growth for countries throughout the region, positioning them for long-term prosperity in the digital age."

The initial list of targeted countries includes: Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, El Salvador, French West Indies, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Panama, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and the Turks & Caicos Islands.

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Digicel appoints new CEO

Digicel has appointed Alexander Matuschka Greiffenclau as Group Chief Executive, replacing Colm Delves who stepped down for personal and family reasons. Delves is expected to remain as a non-executive director of Digicel.

Greiffenclau previously served as Group Chief Performance Officer of VEON since mid-2015.  He previously served as Chief Transformation Officer at Nokia Networks, where he was credited as playing a key role in its transformation.

Under Colm’s leadership over the past 13 years, Digicel grew from US$478 million revenues in eight markets to $2.5 billion revenues across 32 markets with a ten-fold increase in profitability and subscribers.

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Digicel Signs Usain Bolt as "Chief Speed Officer"

Digicel Group, which offers mobile and entertainment services in 33 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and Asia Pacific, has signed Usain Bolt to serve as its "Chief Speed Officer (CSO)."

Digicel has been a sponsor of Usain Bolt since 2004 - when he was fresh out of high school.

In his role as Digicel CSO, Usain will promote the company in a number of ways from both a commercial and community point of view and will continue to inspire, motivate and captivate customers and fans across the globe for many years to come.

Peter Lloyd, Director of Marketing for Digicel Group, said; “We are honoured to be turning our twelve year relationship with Usain into a lifelong relationship. Our relationship with Usain transcends sport – he is a unique human being who inspires millions of people across the world. We take pride in having been the first to offer superfast LTE and fibre to the home services in our markets across the globe and to be delivering a truly cutting edge communications and entertainment experience to our customers. As our Chief Speed Officer, we expect Usain to challenge us constantly to deliver awesome experiences to our customers be it from a product, service or community perspective.”

http://www.digicelgroup.com/en.html

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Digicel Pacific Boosts O3b Satellite Capacity to Papua New Guinea

Digicel Pacific will upgrade its O3b satellite capacity to Papua New Guinea (PNG) by more than 300%, with smaller capacity upgrades in both Nauru and Samoa.

O3b Networks said the upgrade is a direct response to significant growth in internet usage throughout these countries due to Digicel’s upgraded and enhanced 3G/4G mobile network featuring the high-throughput, low latency O3b connection.

“This is an exciting time for O3b, Digicel and its customers in the Pacific,” said Steve Collar, CEO of O3b Networks. “The need for this upgrade shows how hungry consumers are for affordable and quality connectivity. It is not only a sign of healthy economic growth for the region, but also offers promise to other remote locations for similar economic advancement.”

“Digicel is looking to promote data usage over the next two years, so offering aggressive data plans, and having a high-performance connection to deliver on those plans, is absolutely essential,” said Michael Murphy, CEO of Digicel Pacific. “Existing customers in PNG who have not been using data are finding the new O3b-enabled data packages affordable, and usage has already seen a big jump.”

http://www.o3bnetworks.com/

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Digicel Withdraws Plans for Upcoming IPO

Digicel Group, which provides communications services in 31 markets in the Caribbean and South Pacific, withdrew its plans for an upcoming initial public offering.  The company cited inopportune conditions particularly in emerging markets.

Commenting, Denis O’Brien, Chairman, Digicel said: “Given our growth outlook, an IPO for Digicel was optional and predicated on achieving fair value for the company. Recent volatility in equity markets has seen a number of IPOs listing at a discount to their signalled price range and this was a less attractive route for us.”

“Digicel is now at a key juncture in our growth story following a $1.5 billion investment programme over the past three years; we generate strong and growing free cash flow and we have no material debt maturities until 2021. Our growth plans remain unchanged and we remain in a strong position to exploit areas of interest in: Data, Business Solutions, Cable TV and Broadband.”

http://www.digicelgroup.com/en.html

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Digicel Bids for License in Myanmar, Plans US$9 Billion Investment

The Digicel consortium will bid for a nationwide mobile phone licence in Myanmar.

The consortium, which is backed by Quantum Strategic Partners Ltd with the involvement of George Soros, has committed to reaching 96 per cent population coverage by the end of 2015.

"This is truly an historic day for Digicel. With FMI/Yoma and Quantum Strategic Partners, our consortium brings unrivalled expertise, local experience and resources to deliver a world-class telecommunications service to Myanmar," said Mr. Denis O'Brien - Chairman and Founder of Digicel Group Limited, in Nay Pyi Taw today. Our promise is 'Myanmar's Bigger, Better Network' and the Digicel Consortium will do this by delivering the best network, best service, best value and best innovation to the people of Myanmar," Mr. O'Brien added.

Some key points of the Digicel bid:

• Digicel will invest almost US$9 billion in a world-class mobile phone network. Of this US$6.6 billion will be directly invested in Myanmar
  
• Employ over 7,000 people by the end the first year
  
• Digicel's investment in Myanmar will lead to the creation of 124,000 indirect jobs
  
• Digicel will launch its 4G mobile network and achieve 52 per cent population cover by the end of this year and rising to 96 per cent by 2016
  
• The roll out will involve 7,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable and provision of 23,000 wi-fi hotspots
  
• Digicel will undertake the world's largest single mobile deployment of solar power - with 7,277 solar sites
  
• Another major initiative will be the provision of free connectivity to 879 hospitals, 3,900 secondary schools, 180 universities and 4,600 libraries.

http://www.digicelgroup.com

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Digicel Completes US$1 Billion Bond at 6%

Digicel successfully completed a US$1 billion corporate bond offering at 6.00%.  The proceeds will be used to refinance all of its 12% Senior Notes due 2014 and for general corporate purposes which could include capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt repayment or dividends.

Digicel is a leading global telecoms operator serving customers in the Caribbean, Central America and Pacific. Its markets include: Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, El Salvador, Fiji, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Nauru, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, St Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos and Vanuatu. Digicel also has coverage in St. Martin and St. Barts in the Caribbean.

http://www.digicelgroup.com

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