Digicel, the fastest growing mobile provider in the Caribbean, predicts a growing market for mobile content in the region as penetration of cutting-edge handsets continues to increase among its customers.The company notes that sports content is a key area that taps a cultural common ground throughout a diverse group of countries in the pan-Caribbean region.

As Caribbean nations continue to advance technologically, fans across the region are swiftly beginning to interact with sports content on their mobile phones. A key factor in the adoption is Digicel’s ability to roll out state of the art GSM infrastructure from partners such as Ericsson and handset manufacturer KONKA that can support customers growing demand for mobile content.

Since 2004, Digicel rolled-out a mobile content offering starting with an integrated initiative to support its five-year title sponsorship deal for West Indies Cricket by providing fans with mobile team news, match commentaries, scores, a java cricket game, pictures, trivia, and player profiles. On average, customers have downloaded approximately 1000 images of players and matches per month, and more than 60,000 entries for mobile cricket competitions. Digicel recently kicked-off its second season as title sponsor in April 2006. www.digicelcricket.com

Digicel added World Cup football content this year to tap the local fan base in many of its markets especially Trinidad & Tobago, home of the Soca Warriors who made their first World Cup appearance this year. The mobile content gained traction with fans immediately recording approximately 500,000 game alerts sent to mobile handsets since the start of the competition. In countries such as Haiti, the company has been running a first of its kind text based football competition which has been popularly received by its growing customer base (Digicel launched in Haiti on May 3, 2006).

“We know our customers love sports so we didn’t waste anytime bringing this interaction to the Caribbean mobile market,” said Ben Atherton, marketing director for Digicel. “Our mobile content for sports is by far one of the most successful entertainment offerings we have created for our customers.”
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