Please be advised that M3 Wireless has set up a text campaign for Haiti Relief. Customers can donate $1, $5 or $10.

Text Help to 3001: donate $1

Text Help to 3005: donate $5

Text Help to 3010: donate $10

The amount will be billed on your next invoice. Prepaid customers will have the amount deducted from their balance. M3 will calculate the total donations and donate to two charities: The Salvation Army and Haiti Village Health.

Haiti Village Health is a registered Bermuda charity headed by Dr. Tiffany Keenan, an emergency room physician at KEMH. Her organization provides front line medical care in the rural areas of Haiti. Since the earthquake, Dr. Keenan has been in charge of a clinic in Jacmel, 25 miles south of Port au Prince. Our donation will help purchase much needed medical supplies, food and water. For more information on Haiti Village Health, visit www.haitivillagehealth.ca.

KINGSTON, JAMAICA, Jan 15, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — As Digicel continues to work around the clock to restore vital communications in Haiti, the company today expressed grave concern that flights carrying the necessary experts and equipment are not able to land at Haiti’s international airport.

A fully operational communications network is of critical importance to the relief efforts that are currently underway and, to date, four flights carrying Digicel technicians and equipment have been turned away from the airport in Port-au-Prince.

Digicel Chairman, Denis O’Brien, said: “We have been in contact with the United Nations and numerous NGOs who are telling us that restoring Haiti’s communications network is a vital first step in this relief effort. It is critical that our planes carrying all the necessary equipment and technicians be allowed to land in Haiti.” Following the earthquake on Tuesday, January 12th, Digicel deployed a team of technical experts to Haiti. Digicel’s three switches — which serve the entire country — have been assessed by the team and they are operational. However, a number of sites have been damaged — specifically some roof top sites in Port-au-Prince. Congestion also continues to be an issue which Digicel will be able to resolve once the necessary equipment arrives.

“Over the past three days, our teams — both on the ground in Haiti and around each of the countries we operate in — have been working around the clock on the relief effort for Haiti. The response from our customers has been incredible and we have received a wave of donations which we are using to send emergency aid such as food, water and medical supplies to NGOs on the ground in Haiti. It is vitally important that we keep this momentum going over the coming days,” Mr. O’Brien added.

In addition to the equipment and technicians that Digicel is trying to send to Haiti, a 30,000 lb cargo of medical supplies, food and water is ready to be dispatched from Jamaica once the situation in the airport has been resolved.

ABOUT DIGICEL GROUP After eight years of operation, Digicel has 8.8 million customers across its Caribbean and Central American markets and is renowned for competitive rates, unbeatable coverage, superior customer care, a wide variety of products and services and state-of-the-art handsets. By offering innovative wireless services and community support, Digicel has become a leading brand in the Caribbean and has placed the region at the cutting-edge of wireless communications — the company is also a recent entrant to the Central American and Pacific markets.

Digicel is incorporated in Bermuda and now has operations in 32 markets world-wide. Its Caribbean and Central American markets comprise Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, El Salvador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Panama, St Kitts & Nevis, St.

Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and Turks & Caicos. The Caribbean company also has coverage in St. Martin and St. Barths. Digicel Pacific comprises Fiji, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu.

In total, across its 32 markets, Digicel has 10.3 million subscribers.

Digicel is the lead sponsor of Caribbean and Central American sports teams, including the West Indies Cricket Team and Special Olympics teams throughout the region. Digicel is also title sponsor of the Digicel Caribbean Championships and the Copa de Naciones Digicel, which are the Caribbean and Central American qualifiers to the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Visit www.digicelgroup.com for more information on Digicel.

Contact: Emma Hynes Digicel Tel: +1 876 881 8421 emma.hynes@digicelgroup.com SOURCE: Digicel mailto:emma.hynes@digicelgroup.com

Digicel CEO Wayne Caines

But for Wayne Caines, CEO of Digicel, who marked his first year in office last Wednesday, it has been a seamless transition from prosecutor to politician and now company boss.

During an interview yesterday, Mr. Caines spoke about a number of issues, ranging from the biggest challenge he has faced since taking over the hotseat to what steps Digicel has taken to overcome the economic crisis.

He also talked on the key changes in his transition from Senator to CEO, the steep learning curve he has endured and what makes his company stand out from its competitors.

“I think the biggest challenge is the personal/private balance,” he said.

“I am usually at my desk at eight in the morning and leave at 7.30 p.m. at night, so for me, it is about trying to achieve the right balance. My wife and daughter understand that this is part of the job.

“But at the end of the day, it is all about being a job that is full-on and one of those things where the buck stops with me – I knew that when I took the job on.”

The smooth-talking and charismatic Bermudian, who has gained a valuable insight into both the public and private sector during his career, admitted that his time in politics could be “very polarised” in places and that he enjoyed the freedom of doing his own thing as head of one of the Island’s fastest growing companies.

“In politics you are constantly limited by the number of people you can reach in Bermuda, but with the cellular phone industry I am able to be in contact with everyone,” he said.

“I find in business people want a product or service and they want it cheaper than the competitors are offering and with the best customer service and we are able to go to them and say that is what we do and deliver it.”

Mr. Caines, who appeared to enjoy a healthy working relationship with his team throughout the interview and site tour of Digicel’s head office in Washington Mall II and its switch facility in Cumberland House, revealed that he had learnt his strengths and knew when to play to them as well as the right time to rely on his co-workers.

Indeed he reckons that his company is unique in its multi-national set-up, with 49 members of staff from across the world, including young Bermudians and experienced expatriates.

“For me, it has been an interesting and dramatic change from politics and in a role as a prosecutor into a CEO of a company,” he said.

“I am excited about the possibilities, not just for me here at Digicel, but on a personal level – I have fallen in love with this business.”

During his first six weeks in the office, Mr. Caines was whisked away from Bermuda to see and experience first hand Digicel’s headquarters in Jamaica, gaining a complete overview of the company’s worldwide operations and the way it does business.

He was able to meet CEOs of other Digicel markets in the Caribbean and South America, such as Panama, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and other countries, in addition to undergoing training and helping to launch the company in the likes of the British Virgin Islands.

Mr. Caines fulfilled a punishing schedule, covering everything from finance and technology to sales, marketing and customer care before working late into the night drawing up promotions, product launches and business meetings during his stint overseas – all an integral part to the preparation for his role as CEO back in Bermuda.

And with Digicel serving more than 50 percent of the Island’s cellular phone market – according to the company’s own statistics – he has had to be at the top of his game to drive forward initiatives ranging from staff training and development in house (the Digicel Leadership Institute – which yesterday saw 14 employees graduate from the intensive programme) and overseas (with a high demand for the Bermuda office’s BlackBerry expertise across the Caribbean) to overseeing the investment of millions of dollars into the maintenance and upgrade of the company’s network.

Among some of his proudest achievements to date, Mr. Caines cites the launch of Digicel’s ‘Free Incoming Calls’ and ‘Free After Three’ (thirty free minutes for every three minutes users spend on the phone) offers, which he believes have been well received by a discerning public always on the lookout for the latest technological developments and enhancements.

“What we have to do is look for innovative ways to continually challenge ourselves and offer a value campaign,” he said.

“We have a team of people that sits down together, comes up with great ideas and puts them together to produce a product that is going to make us stay ahead of the market.”

Despite having to cut back on spending and limit some of the company’s long-term plans during these hard economic times, Mr. Caines has been able to look to the positives of the situation, focusing on maximising every opportunity the company has to promote its products and services to the market and its customers.

If it is a case working with the customer care staff addressing calls, going out into the field with his team of skilled engineers or travelling to outposts in the Caribbean and South America to set up exciting new projects, or just monitoring the correspondence on his BlackBerry outside the office, there is no job too small or large for Digicel’s forward-thinking CEO.

Bermuda has a long way to go to catch up with the Internet speed and value offered in other developed countries, according to the Computer Society of Bermuda (CSB).

But with the three high-capacity telecommunications cables now serving the Island, the Island can meet the international challenge, CSB said.

In a progress report on the standard of Internet services on the Island, CSB compared the 101 Mbps (megabits per second), $99 a month service being offered to American residents by CableVision-USA with the 1 Mbps service being offered by Bermuda companies for the same price.

“As a service, the Computer Society has been monitoring the changes in internet delivery locally and internationally for the past four years and reporting back to the community,” CSB director Raymond Seymour said.

“CableVision-USA’s 101 Mbps activation of service leaves no doubts that Bermuda is reasonably challenged to stay technologically and cost competitive.

“Last month, we celebrated Logic and North Rock’s accomplishment in advancing their 256kbps residential customers up to 1 Mbps; however, the 101 Mbps international milestone shows a stark contrast of how far we have to go to remain relevant.”

The CSB report added that two weeks ago Virgin Media UK started trials for 200 Mbps service in the Ashford, Kent area in England.

Virgin said the test would be done with 100 customers and trial IPTV, 3D television, telepresence IT and other cutting edge services.

CSB said the development made the UK the technical leader in the world of Internet delivery to homes, with Asia (160 Mbps) and US (101 Mbps) following behind.

On the other hand, in the Caribbean, Flow, a Jamaican telecommunications company, is delivering 15 Mbps service and Bahamas is delivering nine Mbps right now. Bermuda’s maximum speed today is 4.5 Mbps to homes.

“Optimistically stated, Bermuda can meet the international challenge,” Mr. Seymour said. “We have three active, high-capacity cables arriving on our shores delivering the same capacities available to the North American seaboard”.

CSB added that local obstacles have to be overcome.

“Local on-island facilities need to be upgraded to fibre-to-the-home to exceed the 24 Mbps technical maximum we have now,” the report stated.

“This may require investment above $9,000 per home and have to cover over 75 percent of homes to be worthwhile.

“The new regulatory reform needs to be announced then put in place so companies know where they stand in the newly envisioned telecommunications landscape. The Ministry of Telecommunications stated that everyone – providers and customers – would have to wait until 2010 for this to occur.

“Businesses and residents have to take note of what the increased speed to the east and west means for Bermuda.

“With average inbound speed (downloads) 10 to 50 times faster than Bermuda, we will naturally be classed well below acceptable standards for a developed country. We have to ensure we don’t slip any further.”

For more information on how Bermuda’s internet service compares with the world, visit the CSB’s website at www.csb.bm and click on “Library”.

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