(Jamaica Observer) DIGICEL plans to build out an islandwide digital cable and home broadband network within three years, says Barry O’Brien.
The acquisition of Telstar and the islandwide expansion of its cable footprint is a strategic move to position the telecommunications firm to enter the subscriber TV market; push its broadband Internet business; and eventually offer fixed-line services, said the chief executive officer of Digicel Jamaica.
Mobile telecommunications is already at high levels of saturation. Jamaica has a mobile phone pentration rate of over 110 per cent.
O’Brien declined to provide an estimate for the planned investment, but said it would run in the billions of dollars.
Indeed, Telstar, a licensed subscription television (STV) company which also provides broadband and VoIP services, currently services sections of St Andrew and St Catherine. Operations will have to expand to a further 12 parishes across the country.
Digicel will commence replacement of some of Telstar’s existing cable networks with new digital ones almost immediately. The company already has the go-ahead from the Broadcasting Commission to complete the acquisition of the subscriber TV provider.
The cable and broadband infrastructure also forms a critical part of the Digicel’s plans to aggressively target fixed-line customers once the government approves local number portability (LNM), according to O’Brien.
In the meantime, Digicel is prepared to undercut the price of the competition in order to drive up its market share.
With a subtle hint at the competition, O’Brien said that Digicel plans to make its cable service number one in the country in the short term.
Columbus Communications, which trades as Flow in Jamaica, holds the lion’s share of the subscriber TV market in the island. Its network passes approximately 310,000 home, according to the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR). There are an estimated 850,000 dwellings islandwide.
Flow also holds an estimated 48 per cent of fixed line broadband subscriptions across the island, with LIME claiming the remaining 52 per cent.
Digicel is contemplating a name change for the cable company.
‘DigiStar’ seems to be a popular favourite among the company’s executives. But the telecommunications company is considering hosting a naming competition before making the final selection, O’Brien said.
The purchase of Telstar will be Digicel’s fourth Caribbean cable acquisition since last November.
The three companies it bought before provide cable TV and Internet services across five markets — Anguilla, Dominica, Montserrat, Nevis, and Turks and Caicos Islands.
