Island hopping: an Irish upstart marches its way across the Caribbean in search of wireless riches.

Denis O'Brien, one of Ireland's wealthiest men, says he doesn't need Ivy Leaguers to peddle cell phones. Quick decision-makers and plenty of cash are the keys to his success.

"You need people to lead," says the founder of Digicel, a wireless provider with investments in the Caribbean now approaching US$1 billion. "We set up a business, on average, every three months. If someone is doing well you might as well promote them. If they've got the energy and the smarts, get them the gig."

Digicel in June bought U.S. wireless provider Cingular's 10 licenses in the Caribbean and Bermuda for $80 million. Just five years old, the company is now in 15 countries. It's going mano a mano with U.K. rival Cable & Wireless, a full-service telecom with century-old ties to the Caribbean.

The Irish contender came out swinging, signing up a reported 100,000 wireless subscribers in its first 100 days in Jamaica, most of them prepaid customers. Digicel's investments soon knocked the British former monopoly out of 72% of the Jamaican market, according to ratings agency Fitch.

"Now we have about 450,000 subscribers in Jamaica," O'Brien says, speaking from his Digicel phone while on vacation in Ibiza, Spain. "'Are generally take over the incumbents within the first 12 months, or quicker."

Digicel's top priority, is integrating its new Cingular licenses into its network, says Colm Delves, Digicel Group's CEO. Proceeds from a $300 million June bond issue will help, he says. The company also recently acquired licenses in Trinidad & Tobago and in Haiti. Incoming U.S. dollars from remittances and low cell-phone penetration in Haiti means there is room to grow, Delves says.

Acquisitions have pumped up revenues, but the Cingular deal accounts for just 10% of the company's 1.7 million total subscribers in fiscal year 2005, says Delves. The privately held company reports average revenue per user of $25 a month, he says. Less than $15 is the Latin American average, according to Pyramid Research. "We reduced the cost of cell phone [service] in Jamaica by 40%," Delves says.

Telecom analysts say Trinidad & Tobago could he Digicel's new moneymaker, second to Jamaica, because the country is quite wealthy. But Cable & Wireless owns a 49% stake in Telecommunications Services of Trinidad & Tobago and doesn't appear afraid to come out swinging, too. The Trinidad company announced an agreement with Nortel to spend $50 million over the next two years expanding its GSM-standard wireless network, technology Digicel takes credit for introducing to the Caribbean.

Cable & Wireless executives say its customers will stay loyal. After Hurricane Ivan trampled the Caymans in 2004, Cable & Wireless got its network up and running before any other company, says Dervin McLean, manager of external cables for Cable & Wireless in the Cayman Islands. The company's headquarters on the island took in the police department, a local news station and almost 100 people after the hurricane hit, he says. "Digicel wasn't up yet," he says. "I heard them on the radio telling their customers to call them. But they told people to call them on a Cable & Wireless number."

Weathering the Caribbean's devastating tropical storms takes money, says Rachelle Franklin, senior vice president of corporate marketing for Cable & Wireless Caribbean in Boca Baton, Florida. "We've made significant amounts of investment in infrastructure" says Franklin.

The brawl extends even to the otherwise civilized sport of cricket. Digicel now sponsors the West Indies Cricket Team, which Cable & Wireless sponsored for more than a decade (it still sponsors several players). The contentious bidding for the deal in 2004 has spawned Caribbean media frenzy and has lead to an independent committee to investigate the deal, at press time unresolved.

Scars. The fight extends beyond simply robbing each other of customers. Guyanese wireless company Cel Star filed a $30 million lawsuit against Digicel claiming the Irish company poached Cel Star employees before Digicel had won licenses to operate there. Cel Star says its former employees know proprietary information, especially marketing strategies, according to a court document. "We strongly believe in what we filed," says Cel Star spokeswoman Carolyn Chisholm. Digicel responded with a libel lawsuit.

A good scrap is nothing new to O'Brien. "We certainly have plenty of scars on our back," he says. ESAT Digifone, his previous company, fought British Telecom over what he calls anticompetitive practices. "Incumbents spend too much time trying to stop people from entering the markets and don't bother to better their service for their customers," he says. "If they put more energy into their business, I think they'd be better off."