Mobile phone service provider Digicel marks its fifth anniversary today with news that it now has 1.5 million subscribers in Jamaica, giving it, the company says, more than 60 per cent of the telecommunications market share here.

According to data received from the company, Digicel achieved the 1.5 million target last month just before adding Trinidad and Tobago to the 13 other Caribbean islands in which it now offers service.

Since its launch in Jamaica in 2001, the Irish-owned telecoms company has aggressively expanded throughout the Caribbean even as it broadened its customer base across Jamaica with new product offerings such as 'per second billing', 'picture messaging', 'mobile web', 'mobile chat', and 'pre-paid roaming'.

"You have to remember that there was great dissatisfaction with the incumbent and we came and offered a clear choice," Digicel's chief customer relations director Harry Smith said yesterday.

Smith was referring to the service offered by Cable and Wireless Jamaica which, at the entry of Digicel into the market, improved its cellular coverage of the island and has taken on the Irish-owned firm in a fierce battle for market share.

In its first month of operations Digicel said it surpassed its target of 100,000 subscribers set for the year.

Its foray into the Caribbean saw it acquiring Cingular Wireless' Caribbean and Bermuda assets last year, including the operation in Antigua and Barbuda.

According to Digicel principal and chairman Denis O'Brien, the company's goal is to develop "a seamless PanCaribbean network and beyond".

O'Brien revealed that Digicel has started negotiations to acquire Bouygues Telecom Caraïbe in the French West Indies and is also completing plans to roll-out WiMAX to offer fixed and mobile broadband communications for voice and data services to its customers in Jamaica.

The acquisition of Bouygues Telecom Caraïbe will allow the company to expand to Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana. Currently Digicel operates in Jamaica, The Cayman Islands, Grenada, St Lucia, Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Bermuda, Anquilla, St Kitts & Nevis, Antigua, & Barbuda, Dominica, Curacao, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua, Turks & Caicos Islands.

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