"Digicel will be adding 22 new sites, bringing the total to over 600 sites islandwide, which will provide us with 94 per cent population coverage of Jamaica," David Hall, chief operating officer of the cellular firm, told the Business Observer yesterday. "The overall company strategy is that no matter where you are in Jamaica, customers will be able to purchase cards to top up (their credit) and you will be able to make calls due to our superior coverage."

The company also says it intends to acquire additional equipment, as well as optimise and redeploy current equipment to further improve coverage and service.

Digicel, which started operating in Jamaica just over three years ago, now has over one million clients, 96 per cent of whom the company says, receive or make a call at least once every 48 hours.

"This is very heavy usage, and we have to keep expanding our capacity at a faster rate than our subscriber growth to ensure that our customers get the high level of service they are used to from Digicel," says Hall.

The company has taken on 90 summer interns to help it handle the capacity during those months, and plans to add more staff to their Customer Care Unit. "Every time we go into a new area or take on new customers, it necessitates hiring new staff," explains Hall.

Currently, Digicel employs 614 persons islandwide and close to 1,000 throughout its seven operations within the Caribbean countries of St Lucia, St Vincent, Grenada, Cayman, Aruba, Barbados and Jamaica.

Jamaica remains the main operation for the company which recently had to rent another building in New Kingston to cope with the aggressive expansion in the market.

Digicel recently moved the Caribbean function to the new location in New Kingston.

On June 1, the cell company introduced a new billing system, which it says allows for more flexible solutions for its corporate market and new products for post-paid customers.

"The system will enable the company to take even further strides to improve their position as market leaders by improving the quality of products they can offer to that market segment," according to Hall.

The company also launched a loyalty programme on May 1 through which each customer is offered $100 free credit every month. The amount is applied to the pre-paid accounts anytime during the month that the first top up is done as well as on the bills of all post-paid customers who pay their bill on time.

"The loyalty programme coincided with our third anniversary and was our way of thanking our customers for supporting us," says Hall.

Hall says his company is also focused on making improvements in its repairs process, working closely with handset manufacturing partners like Nokia and Sony Ericsson to commission additional repair centres and reduce the turnaround time on repairs.

"We will employ whatever resource or corrective activity that is required to continue to deliver the level of service that has made us number one," he says. "It is a position we take very seriously and we're committed to making sure our customers are happy and satisfied. We are committed to remaining the Bigger, Better GSM Network."

There are over 200 Digicel stores islandwide where customers are able to purchase phones and other related equipment in addition to 4,000 outlets, including supermarkets, corner shops, and bars where customers can top up their pre-paid phone cards.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/Business/html/20040616T000000-0500_61294_OBS_DIGICEL_SPENDING_US___M_ON_UPGRADE.asp