25375: Hermantin(News)Wireless carrier sees potential in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-ybintl13jun13,0,5675411.story
Wireless carrier sees potential in Haiti



by Doreen Hemlock
Business Writer

June 13, 2005

Here's good news for business in Haiti, the Caribbean nation struggling with 
poverty, violence and political upheaval.

Fast-growing wireless phone company Digicel is entering the Haitian market, 
expanding its eight-nation network across the Caribbean.

Digicel said it will be the fourth wireless carrier in Haiti, though the first 
to use GSM technology. The new service should produce 1,000 direct and indirect 
jobs, a company spokeswoman estimated.

Haiti has only about 400,000 phones today for more than 8 million residents, 
according to local estimates. That's one of the world's lowest tele-densities, 
reflecting its rank as the poorest nation in the Americas.

Digicel estimates up to 2 million people in Haiti could potentially buy a 
mobile phone and avail of such services as prepaid calls.

The expansion by Irish-owned Digicel comes amid a telecom boom in the Caribbean 
because of new technologies and the opening of markets to competition.