Natcom is now Haiti's largest mobile operator, ahead of Digicel
Figures from Conatel, the telecom regulator, give Natcom 55% of Haiti's 8.2 million mobile subscriptions. Digicel had led the market for most of the past two decades.
Haiti's mobile market has a new leader. According to figures from Conatel, the country's telecom regulator, Natcom now has more subscribers than Digicel Haiti, the operator that had led the market for most of the past two decades.
Conatel shared the numbers with journalists at an open day for its 57th anniversary on September 24, but has not published them on its own website or social media. Frantz Duval, editor-in-chief of Le Nouvelliste, relayed them in an article and on X.
The numbers
Haiti's mobile market is a duopoly: only two operators share its 8,246,009 subscriptions.
- Natcom: 4,549,994 subscribers, or 55.18% of the market.
- Digicel: 3,696,015 subscribers, or 44.82%.
The figures count SIM cards, not people: someone with one SIM card on each network is counted twice.
Who the two operators are
Natcom was formed in 2010, when the state telephone company Teleco was partly privatised. Viettel, a Vietnamese telecom group owned by Vietnam's Ministry of National Defence, holds 60% of the company. The Haitian state keeps the rest.
Digicel was founded in Jamaica in 2001 by Irish businessman Denis O'Brien and launched in Haiti in 2006. It quickly became the country's leading network and held that position for most of the following years.
Why it is a surprise
Until now, Digicel was widely seen as the market leader in Haiti. Conatel's figures show that Natcom has passed it.
Natcom also has slightly more cell sites than Digicel: 1,378 against 1,328, according to the same Conatel figures.
