August 16, 2011Dear Sir,I note with interest the comments made by the CEO of CellOne in his interview printed in this newspaper on August 15, 2011. Healthy competition in the telecoms market can only be a good thing — for customers and for Bermuda as a whole. That said, in the interest of ensuring that customers benefit from the accurate information that they need to be able to make informed buying decisions, I do feel that some of the points in the article should not go unchallenged.l In the interview Mr Amaral claims CellOne has a majority market share of 55 percent. We strongly disagree. Based on methods that cellular carriers have for measuring market share (such as measuring numbers with call activity charged) we can ascertain that Digicel currently holds more than 54 percent share of the Bermuda cellular market. Actual market shares are known figures within the industry as each carrier pays a tax per subscriber to the Government, there is no need to guess or mislead. I can only view Mr Amaral's words as desperate attempt to create perception of being a market leader rather than earning it as Digicel has.l Mr Amaral also claims to offer best value. To that, I refer to our launch in 2005 when Digicel revolutionised the market by offering best value for prepaid and postpaid customers. We still offer the best value and now also the most affordable rates for our mobile Internet services (USB modems).l Finally, CellOne claims to have ‘more coverage' and ‘more speed' than Digicel. This is also untrue. Anyone can measure their network speed by simply going to www.speedtest.net and conducting a test. If you compare both networks, the Digicel 3G+ network is notably faster. Regarding coverage, the truth is all networks around the world have coverage challenges in distinct areas due to terrain, undulations and proximity of customers to cell towers. Still, our own tests show that the Digicel network offers greater overall coverage than CellOne.Digicel's focus always has been on our customers. We do this by continually innovating our offerings in order to provide best value. We also invest in our communities in various ways from scholarships, to fundraising and sponsorships. Perhaps CellOne should focus on their customers instead of making unsubstantiated claims.WAYNE M CAINESCEODigicel Bermuda