Le pari de Digicel en Haiti.

Telecoms in the Caribbean

The Irish are coming
Sep 27th 2007 | MIAMI
From The Economist print edition



Mobile phones are spreading as competition heats up and prices fall


WHEN Digicel, an Irish mobile-phone operator, decided to invest heavily in Haiti last year, it raised eyebrows. How on earth did Digicel's maverick owner, Dennis O'Brien, hope to make money in such a poor country? “You don't look at GDP. You ignore that,” says Mr O'Brien. Sure enough, Digicel signed up new customers so fast that the company had to rewrite its business plan after the first week. After just 15 months it has signed up 1.7m customers, compared with the 1m shared by its two rivals, Comcel and Haitel. Digicel's assault on Haiti is only the latest in a series of Caribbean conquests. Since the company set up in Jamaica in April 2001 it has established a presence in 22 markets in the region and has amassed some 5m customers. Mr O'Brien says he has invested $1.9 billion in total, including $260m in Haiti.
Digicel has prospered by introducing modern technology and innovative services into stodgy, uncompetitive markets. Its entry into Jamaica led to drastic reductions in prices and showed the region just how much it stood to gain from liberalisation. Digicel used a similar recipe in Haiti. “We floored prices and gave people a better service,” says Mr O'Brien. Pre-paid billing, based on top-up cards, makes phones more affordable to those outside the business and political elites. Digicel has also introduced novel twists of its own, such as the ability to send free “call me” text messages to other people.
But some analysts predict the company's rapid growth may now have peaked. Competition is heating up as operators in Latin America, where growth is now slowing, look to new markets in the Caribbean and Central America. In particular, América Móvil, the world's fifth-largest mobile operator, announced its intention in August to buy Oceanic Digital, a small Jamaican phone company that operates under the MiPhone brand. América Móvil has 140m customers in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and the United States. Jamaica would be its third Caribbean market. It already has operations in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Like Digicel, it relies on strong branding, modern technology and cut-price tariffs.
“Digicel's easy ride is over,” says Jose Otero, an analyst at Signals Telecom Consulting. “This is the first time they are going to face someone who is used to competing in the global market with better financial strength and government relations.”
América Móvil's move looks like retaliation after Digicel began operations in El Salvador. Digicel has also acquired a licence in Guatemala, and says it is looking next at Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. A price war in Jamaica could be bad for Cable & Wireless, a British firm that operates several networks in the Caribbean. It is hoping that its ability to offer both fixed and wireless services will prove to be an advantage. Whether or not that turns out to be so, consumers will benefit from the increased competition.
Digicel's critics say it has used underhand tactics, such as giving away free phones to journalists (though other firms do the same), and breaking industry rules by treating Haiti as part of Jamaica in order to offer cheap roaming. Haiti's regulator, Conatel, found Digicel to be in violation of international standards, but was overruled by the government. Such rulings have also led to allegations that Digicel has undue political influence in some markets.
But officials deny any impropriety and credit Digicel with making the market more affordable for Haiti's poor majority. “Haiti needs more foreign investment like this, both for the jobs and for the ‘best practices’ business models that it injects into this antiquated, non-customer-friendly business environment,” says a senior Haitian official. Mr O'Brien claims he has grown used to all the criticism, and suggests that jealous rival operators are behind it. “The problem with them is that they are too flat-footed,” he says.

What about teleco?what has it done to improve service to its customers?This is where the debate between privatization and naturalization shows its weakness.here is an example of what privatisation can do to improve a service to the people.

Is Teleco obsolete?

La révolution du télécellulaire démontre l'importance du marche Ayisyen dans la région Caribbéenne et à travers le monde.

Avec sa population dépassant par des millions, les populations de tous les autres membres de la Caricom, notre pays est entrain de prouver que le temps est révolu où ses détracteurs le méprisaient et jugeaient sa potentialité nulle.

Cela servira certainement de leçon pour ceux qui négligeaient les investissements dans le pays le plus pauvre de l'hémisphere.

Quels risques profitables pour une compagnie Irlandaise!!.
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CARIBBEAN
Cellphone revolution has people talking in Haiti, Caribbean region
The cellphone revolution is changing the social and business landscape in Haiti and other Caribbean nations.Posted on Sun, Sep. 30,

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
jcharles@MiamiHerald.com

PETER ANDREW BOSCH/MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Digicel has tapped into demand for mobile telephones in Haiti, with two-thirds of all users.
Video | Promotional video from Digicel
Audio | Interview with Colm Delves, CEO of Digicel Group
Digicel, Caribbean telephone by the numbers

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- In a country where most people live without paved roads, running water or even electricity, there's one modern convenience that more than a quarter of the people are enjoying: a cellphone.

Cellphones are connecting Haitians in unheard-of ways, touching the lives of rich and poor, farmer and urbanite, and propelling this Caribbean nation to nearly first-world stature -- at least when it comes to talking on the phone.

Consider what life was like for Soimise Lautin before her daughter handed her a cellphone a year ago. To contact relatives, the charcoal merchant had to take a three-hour journey in overcrowded buses along perilous rural roads.

''Now I don't have to do that. I just call to know what is happening,'' said Lautin, one of the millions of Haitians without any of the country's 150,000 expensive and often unreliable land lines. ``It has changed my life.''

While the penetration of land lines remains at just 2 percent countrywide, cellular penetration has increased from zero to 29 percent in less than 10 years, according to government figures. The industry represents the largest investment in Haiti in decades.

''Cellular brings to the poor and marginalized people the feeling that they are part of the society,'' said Jean-Marie Raymond Noel, who oversaw a recent U.N. Development Program study of 13 major Haitian cities that showed four out of five households had at least one cellphone.

The revolution is not limited to Haiti.

REGIONAL ADOPTION

Cellphones also are spreading rapidly across the Caribbean region, where government deregulation has led to competition, drastically reduced rates, increased access, better service and even societal changes.

In a TV and Internet ad for the recent elections in Jamaica, the Jamaica Labor Party aired a video of a farmer in the middle of a yam field yapping on his mobile about the lack of progress under the rival People's National Party.

''The fact that a farmer in a yam field can answer a cellphone is a sign of progress,'' fired back former PNP foreign minister K.D. Knight.

In Suriname, the downloading of video porn has some parliamentarians calling for a ban on cellphones in schools, while in neighboring Guyana the government already has declared classrooms cellphone-free zones. Guyana, like Trinidad and other islands, is considering banning the use of cellphones while driving.

Some major roadways in Jamaica and Trinidad have been marked by dueling billboards in which popular reggae and soca stars and sports figures promote the London-based Cable & Wireless (C&W) and rival Digicel, headquartered in Ireland. In Turks and Caicos, C&W has offered businesses free cellphones and green-and-white paint jobs, its brand colors.

The cellular expansion has sprouted related businesses. In Haiti, enterprising Haitians have realized they can make a living charging others to use their cellphones, and have set up shops along the streets.

While C&W's logo dominated TV screens during this year's Cricket World Cup held around the English-speaking Caribbean, Digicel's red and white colors are hard to miss whenever Haiti's national soccer team takes the field.

In Jamaica, like in Haiti, much of the cell expansion is credited to Digicelwhich debuted in the Caribbean in 2001 with an offer of affordable service. The telecommunications provider signed up 100,000 customers in 100 days.

Digicel's success in Jamaica ended C&W's 106-year telephony monopoly in the former British colony and served as the launch pad for Digicel's aggressive island-hopping campaign that touts competitive rates, cheaper handsets, international roaming and other services.

In response, other companies have been forced to fast-track offerings of high-tech devices like the BlackBerry, whose availability in the Caribbean significantly lagged that in the United States until recently.

MARKETING IN FLORIDA

The marketing blitz has extended to South Florida, where local radio ads inform Caribbean natives that they can now pre-pay cellular minutes for friends and relatives on the islands.

Haiti's HaiTel company allows Floridians to buy a phone over the Internet and have it delivered anywhere in the mountainous country.

''Digicel is the new word for competition in Haiti,'' said Kesner Pharel, a leading Haitian economist. ``The revolution isn't just with the cellphones but the way these people are managing their companies. They are going right to people's faces and selling their companies.''

Colm Delves, CEO of Digicel Group in Jamaica, won't say how much the company, which reported more than $1 billion in revenue for the fiscal year that ended in March, is spending on advertising.

''Our competitors are spending more on marketing than we are,'' he said jokingly. ``Our marketing strategy is quite simple: it's to get the Digicel message out there.''

As for criticism that the cellular rage is making the poor poorer because they prefer to buy prepaid phone cards over food, Digicel's Haiti CEO Ghada Gebara said industry analysis shows that improved telecommunications has become a catalyst for economic growth in developing countries.

And it's not just about making money. Digicel executives say that the company's foundation is building 20 schools in Haiti with the profits from its $260 million investment in the country.

''Everything that we are generating in terms of cash flow we are reinvesting back into the market,'' Delves said.

But it has not been easy for Digicel, the newcomer in the telecommunications field. In almost all of its 22 markets, it has met resistance from established rivals, which block interconnectivity or charge non-network users higher fees to call the competitors' phones.

In Trinidad, as in Haiti, that has translated into people often carrying more than one phone. This summer, a fed-up Digicel sued C&W in London seeking multimillion damages over what it alleges to be ``unlawful tactics.''

C&W, which reported a 19 percent increase in mobile revenues for the year ended March and claims to remain the leader in most of its Caribbean markets, issued a statement saying Digicel's claim is without merit and ``will be vigorously defended.''

Digicel nonetheless recorded a 144 percent increase in overall regional subscriber growth, with 5.2 million users in the 12-month period ended in June. With 1.6 million customers in Haiti, Digicel's customer base there is now nearly as big as that in Jamaica.

Digicel had projected signing up 300,000 users over two years. It instead lined up 1 million in only eight months.

''Haiti has been a phenomenal success,'' Delves said. ``Our experience has exceeded any of our initial expectations.''

Digicel's decision to enter the Haitian market was not based on a formal market survey, Delves said, rather via two days of driving the traffic-clogged streets of this capital city.

''What we saw was a huge population that was being completely underserved,'' Delves said. ``There's just so much trading in Haiti done on the streets. There's a big cash base and market there.''

Kounyea se Ayiti ki pi inpòtan lan mache karikòm avèk plis ke yon milion abòne.

Mwen panse ke rezon ki fè Dijicel gen tout siksè sayo, se paske se yon konpanyi etranje ki vini etidye sitiasyon peyi a SAN PREJIJE.

Yo pat janm di yo pral ofri moun ki gen lajan ak boujwa sèvis yo. Yo wè ke chak abònman yo louvri, rapote konpanyi an yon ti pwofit e lè w miltipliye pa plis ke yon milion, se yon gwo biznis li ye.

Yo pa mem fè yon analyz maketing, You sikile lan lari Potoprins e tou sa yo wè se yon pakèt moun ki ap fè biznis yo lan lari a e moun sayo ta enterese lan telefòn selilè pou fe komès yo mache.

Si w ta l di lòt konpanyi yo pou yo envesti an deyò pou machann chabon ak abitan genyen telefòn payo. Yo ta p mande w si w fou.

Antouka, tout moun iletre sayo apran sèvi ak yon telefòn selilè.

Mwen konn anpil moun Kanada ki pa konn kijan pou yo sèvi avèk yon selilè.

Sak fè bann komèsan depaman an Ayiti yo pat ka panse konsa?

nou pa gen biznisman an ayiti, nou gen komansan. yon biznisman se yon entreprene, yon moun kap panse pou vinn ak yon biznis ki pwofitab epi tou ki ap gen yon efe sosyal omwen jewometrik.
yon komansan se yon moun ki pa jame fe etid sou aryen, li sinpleman ap vann sanke li pa gen okin objektif pou divesifye, grandi ou conglomefe pwodwi li ya.

pa ekzanp, moun ki gen barbancourt an ayiti, se yon komansan, li te yon entrepene binizman, bwason sa fok li tan nan tout bar ak club sou late; paske mwen poko jame jwenn yon etranje ki pa damou bwason sa. nou we timesye yo pa binizman, yo se komansan.

Le rhum Barbancourt est l'un des 3 meilleurs rhums du monde.

D'ailleurs, dans la plupart des concours de classement de rhum, il sert d'etalon, de rhum-reference.

Yo pa mem fè yon analyz maketing, You sikile lan lari Potoprins e tou sa yo wè se yon pakèt moun ki ap fè biznis yo lan lari a e moun sayo ta enterese lan telefòn selilè pou fe komès yo mache.

Au contraire Sasaye. C'est parce que la Digicel a bien fait son travail d'analyse du marche haitien et qu'elle avait les fonds necessaires qu'elle a pu percer le marche haitien.

Un an avant le lancement, les equipes marketing et autres etaient a pied d'oeuvre. Un membre de ma famille fait partie du haut "etat-major" et fait des 16 heures par jour depuis le debut de l'aventure Digicel.

Et c'est parce que ses reserves financieres etaient bonnes qu'elle a pu passer au travers de tous les pieges que l'on a voulu mettre en travers de sa route - gouvernement, concurrents, etc.

Alors que les autres compagnies de cellulaire font affaire sur le dos de l'Etat haitien. La Haitel doit plus de 40 millions de dollars a la Teleco, la Comcel, au moins une bonne dizaine...

Et dire que sous Preval 1, la Teleco a fait des investissements majeurs pour demarrer sa propre compagnie de telephonie cellulaire, la Rectel. Combines politiques et interets de clans ont tue dans l'oeuf ce projet et aujourd'hui, c'est l'etranger qui vient s'enrichir chez nous.

Gwotoro,

Mon assertion au sujet du marketing est une traduction de leurs propres déclarations dans la langue anglaise.


Digicel's decision to enter the Haitian market was not based on a formal market survey, Delves said, rather via two days of driving the traffic-clogged streets of this capital city.

''What we saw was a huge population that was being completely underserved,'' Delves said. ``There's just so much trading in Haiti done on the streets. There's a big cash base and market there.''



Il est fortune qu'ils ont choisi cette méthode plutot que les grands principes de Marketing et d'économie pratiqués par les pays développés.

Ils auraient agi comme les amérikens qui nous ont toujours considérés comme un "Basket Case"

A bien des égards, Haiti est un défi au monde entier.
Il ne s'accomode pas sur les patrons faits et fournis par les pays avancés.

Examples:
Manigat avec ses diplomes ou doctorats en sciences politiques, après avoir fait une tournée dans plusieurs universités sérieuse pour leur enseigner sa science, il revient en Haiti, et se fait jouer comme une polichinelle par un militaire de pacotille.

Qu'en est-il de ces diplomés en agromie qui n'arrivent pas a faire décoller notre agriculture?

Ni a capter l'attention de nos paysans.

J'ai entendu dire que le marché informel fait de plus grosses transactions que les commerces et les industries formelles.

On devrait donc penser a redéfinir les diverses parametres qui sont les clés de notre développement pour y appliquer une forte dose d'Haitianité.

gwotoro, je me demande pourquoi, le rhum barbancourt n'est pas dans tous les cabinets de boisson prives, et les bars et clubs du monde? la reponse est claire: les proprietaires du produit ne sont que des encervelles.