In September 1998, Communication Cellulaire d'Haiti ("ComCEL") was awarded a license to construct and operate a nationwide TDMA mobile communications network. Additionally, ComCEL was granted the right to build and operate services such as paging, payphones and, in the future, an international gateway. ComCEL launched commercial service in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in September 1999.
Originally owned and developed by Western Wireless International, which was then acquired by ALLTEL, ComCEL was purchased by Trilogy in 2005. The following year was spent overlaying ComCEL’s legacy TDMA network with GSM, expanding its coverage footprint and migrating its TDMA base to the new network. In mid-2006, the TDMA to GSM migration was complete and the TDMA network was retired.
Haiti Fast Facts:
Population: 8.7 million
Languages: French (official), Creole
Area: 27,750 sq km
GDP per Capita (PPP): $1,900
Currency: 1 gourde (G) = 100 centimes
Teledensity: 1 telephone line per 100 inhabitants
Wireless Operators: 3
Source: CIA World Factbook, World Bank, Trilogy Internal Reports
Market overview – Haiti is located on the Western third of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. The CIA Worldfactbook reports that it is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere and has a long history of political instability. Rates of joblessness and inflation remain extremely high. The government relies on formal international economic assistance for fiscal sustainability and the country benefits from the support of the International Monetary Fund. It is estimated that almost a quarter of the country’s GDP – or approximately $1.65 billion – is provided by remittances (i.e. money transfers) into Haiti from friends and relatives who live abroad.
The telecommunications sector in Haiti is characterized by the lowest wireless penetration rates (36%) in Latin American and the Caribbean and a large imbalance in the supply of telecommunications services as compared to demand. Haiti has fewer than 200,000 wireline telephone connections. This wireline penetration rate – less than 2% – is the lowest in the Western hemisphere.
Service offerings – ComCEL provides voice and data services to its customers in Haiti over its GSM network. Virtually all of ComCEL’s customers are prepaid subscribers. ComCEL also provides international long distance (“ILD”) carrier service to its subscribers.
ComCEL recently launched a public telephony offering, in which consumers can make pay phone calls using ComCEL phones that are located in stores or are available from street vendors and are connected via ComCEL’s licensed frequencies to ComCEL’s switch. The pay phones are owned and managed by the store owners and vendors, who purchase airtime at wholesale rates from the Company and resell it to consumers.
ComCEL’s wireless network has coverage of all major cities and roads. The operation has a dedicated microwave transmission network for backhaul of mobile and ILD traffic. ComCEL has a high quality network with quality of service metrics at or exceeding industry standards.
Visit ComCEL’s website at http://www.voila.ht
