Why is the Jamaica Mobile market so hot?

Kingston, Jamaica – The Jamaica Telecom market more so the Mobile Sector is about to get hotter. In the last 4 days lots have changed. Cable & Wireless has sacked Rodney Davis, its CEO of Jamaican operations replacing him with the Australian Philip Green. Then MiPhone, the brand of Oceanic Digital was bought out by Mexico’s América Móvil (AMX), a company owned with an ironclad hold on the Latin American market with 137 million subscribers across 16 countries by Carlos Slim, who this year claimed he’s richer than Bill Gates. So far Digicel, the leading mobile provider in Jamaica and the Caribbean has been quiet, maybe busy in making sure their WIMAX offering launches as planned in September.

Two questions easily spring to mind:

1. Why would a company like América Móvil with over 137.2 million subscribers in 16 countries buy a company like MiPhone with just over 150,000 subscribers and seemingly very little chance of taking market leadership away from Digicel?2. What makes the Jamaican mobile phone market so hot?

-Jamaicans have a huge appetite for talking and talking and talking and since they have an additional 2.5 million of their friends and families living abroad, under girded by a yearly US$billion dollar remittance market- this makes it always ripe with opportunity.

–Jamaica has over 90% mobile phone penetration and is predominantly a prepaid mobile phone market in fact it’s over 90% so. Which makes it price sensitive, hence open to hot new, low cost, better value offerings that will sway the typical consumer.

Lessons to be learnt.

1. New technology can always change the game.
2. Big money can always change the game.