Mobile telephone company Digicel deepened its presence in Central America by officially launching operations in Honduras on Monday. Its investment in Honduras stands at US$450 million, of that sum, US$80 million was invested in a GSM/GPRS network in that country. Digicel has now extended its footprint into El Salvador, Honduras with Panama coming up over the next two weeks. It also has eyes on Costa Rica and continues to look for opportunities in the region.

Speaking at the launch of Digicel's operations in Honduras' Marriott Hotel, Digicel's founder and chairman, Denis O'Brien said: "I was disappointed with the networks that already existed in Honduras. They always seemed congested and the clarity of calls left a lot to be desired. We decided to build a network from scratch. This new network has a massive capacity.

Presently there is 60 per cent penetration in Honduras and we want to revolutionise the cell-phone business in this country with superior products and services. We are coming into Honduras as the number four player but we are quickly looking to move up to be at the very least the number two market leader."

Millicom's Tigo, America Movil's Claro and Telefonica's Movistar's already enjoy a presence in Honduras. Digicel has now joined the pack and will be looking to take market share with its tried and tested strategy. It already has established 500 sales points and created 450 direct jobs with a further 3,000 indirect jobs. Digicel has introduced Talk for Free to Hondurans.

This sees subscribers able to talk for free after five minutes. The minutes can be accumulated in one call or between calls to any other operator or on international calls. Customers will then receive the rest of the day free to call Digicel to Digicel.

Digicel's investment in Honduras represents its largest to date in Central America. The region has proven to be a happy hunting ground for the company that had its beginnings in the Caribbean.

O'Brien explained: " Our first foray into the region was El Salvador where we bought a company aptly called Digicel. We began there as the number four player with just four per cent of the market. Within 20 months we had 28 per cent of the market and took the number two spot thereby surpassing Claro.

We now have a staff compliment of 400 people in El Salvador." The Digicel chairman noted that there are many post paid customers in El Salvador and that Digicel had competed there by providing bigger better service.

Digicel has also won a US$2-million licence to provide WiMax, a 4G service in Honduras. This will provide faster wireless broadband Internet services and is the next step in the evolution of cellphone technology. O'Brien said that his company expects to make a loss in its first year of operations in Honduras but expects to turn a profit over the next five years. Digicel has appointed Miguel Garcia as CEO of Digicel Honduras.

He has held positions as general manager of Bell South Nicaragua and Guatemala as well as served a period as commercial director of BellSouth Panama and Marketing Director of BellSouth Sao Paulo.

His most recent posting was as general manager Wireless Operations Centennial in Puerto Rico. Speaking with The Business Observer from Honduras , Digicel's director of Business Development, Ken Mason said: "It took us some time to win the licence in Honduras but it has been worth it because we expect this to be a very important market for us. It is our biggest spend to date and the sophistication of our network speaks for itself. I think Hondurans will be very pleased to have a network that is not congested and where their calls can be heard audibly".

To date Digicel has invested US$800 million in Jamaica, US$250 million in Trinidad & Tobago, US$300 million in Haiti and this year it has invested US$100 million in Fiji. It has operations in 31 countries and serves 6.54 million customers.

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