Hurricane season in the Caribbean usually runs from June to November, but the storm arrived a month early at Digicel’s Jamaica headquarters in 2024, when Marcelo Cataldo (pictured) took the top job to turn around a company struggling under billions of dollars of debt.
Originally from Paraguay, Cataldo is no stranger to telecoms in markets, having spent most of his career with Millicom. He was CEO and president of Tigo Colombia for over seven years, and before that held several C-suite roles across the wider group.
Digicel was founded by Irish billionaire Denis O’Brien in 2001, shaking up the Jamaican market with aggressive pricing. The strategy paid off, enabling expansion across the Caribbean, Central America and the Pacific. Today, the operator is a leading player in most of its 24 markets.
However, over the years the company amassed a mountain of debt, at one point, reportedly, totalling US$7 billion. This forced a major restructuring as Digicel teetered on the brink of financial ruin.
According to the Irish Times, O’Brien was forced to cede most of his shares in a deal with bond investors two years ago, writing off US$1.7 billion in debt.
Cataldo was brought in from Millicom to steady the ship. His immediate task was to balance the books as high-interest debts loomed in 2027 and 2028. The company re-entered the bond market and took out loans to refinance its entire debt pile, which now stands at US$2.7 billion.
Cataldo told Developing Telecoms the focus has now shifted to growth, across Digicel’s 25 markets and its 10 million-strong customer base.
The heavy investment has left Digicel with an enviable asset: 4G coverage averaging 95% across its markets. Cataldo said this provides a strong foundation for growth, noting: “The Caribbean region is immature in data usage compared to other regions.”
“In this region, we still have voice-only users with feature phones. This presents an opportunity to drive revenue and ARPU – we have a blessed opportunity to move people into the digital world.”
Digicel faces familiar emerging market challenges. Around 90% of its customers are prepaid, with affordability and digital literacy remaining major hurdles.
Smartphones typically cost between US$150 and US$200 – which Cataldo concedes is a “sizeable amount of money” for many households. Yet he believes demand for digital services will drive uptake: despite 95% coverage, only 70% of Digicel’s mobile customers are on 4G, leaving plenty of headroom for growth.
Operating across multiple jurisdictions also presents complexity, but Cataldo praised governments for aligning with operators on digital transformation agendas.
“Regulators understand their agenda. We show our capabilities and our possibilities to help them achieve it, because they want to digitise their countries as much as any other,” said Cataldo.
A further challenge is stagnant population growth across the Caribbean, as young people migrate to more developed markets in search of work.
Still, Digicel remains in a relatively favourable position. As Cataldo noted, the “telecoms pie” in most Caribbean markets is shared between just two players – Digicel and Liberty Latin America – compared to up to four operators in Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Over the next 12 months, Cataldo aims to bolster Digicel’s network resilience and reliability. This year the operator signed a deal with clean energy specialist Caban Energy to supply units including Jamaica, boosting resilience while cutting carbon. Another priority will be a “heavy expansion” of its fibre footprint, which currently connects 900,000 households.
Fibre rollout was previously on hold due to the debt burden, but deployment is now ramping up in Guyana and Curacao.
B2B services are also a growth vector. Cataldo said Digicel is one of the few companies in its regions offering ICT solutions such as data centres, cloud computing and unified communications, filling a gap left by hyperscalers such as Google and Microsoft, which lack local operations due to scale.
“We engage with the companies at a very early stage to help them understand what they need, then sell the service,” he explained.
For Cataldo, the turnaround is far from complete, but optimism runs high. With refinancing behind it, Digicel now has the breathing space to invest and expand. The operator is targeting steady mobile growth, faster expansion in fibre-to-the-home, and even stronger gains in business and ICT services.
“It’s still early days,” said Cataldo, midway through his second year in the role. “But we are on the right track – delivering on EBITDA, delivering on cash, and fulfilling our commitments to shareholders and investors. Most importantly, we are creating real opportunities to bring more people in the Caribbean into the digital world.”
