Telecommunications operator Digicel yesterday announced it had more than doubled its number of Bermuda subscribers in 2006.

And last year continued a story of great regional success story for the Bermuda-incorporated company, which has enjoyed a staggering average annual compound growth rate of 1,423 percent since its launch in 2001.

Digicel entered the Bermuda mobile telecommunications market in December 2005, after it bought out Cingular Wireless operations here and in the Caribbean.

Its aggressive campaign to attract customers has effectively forced down the cost of cell phone use on the Island.

“As a part of the tremendous achievements that Digicel realised in 2006, we are pleased to report significant accomplishments in Bermuda,” Digicel Bermuda’s general manager David Hunter said.

“Not only have we doubled subscriber numbers in the past year, the significant investment that has been made in our network has enabled us to improve coverage on Island.

“We continue to enter into new roaming agreements on a daily basis, which enables us to provide a more robust product/service to all clients, especially our business clients. And the fact that Digicel was named ‘Best Cellular Provider’ for 2006 in The Bermudian Business Product and Service Awards is a testament to our achievements.”

Achieving record growth in 2006, Digicel ended the year with a total investment in the Bermuda and Caribbean region exceeding $1.5 billion, operations in 22 markets and more than four million customers, representing subscriber growth in excess of 100 percent.

In Haiti alone, where Digicel launched in May 2006, the company reached a milestone of one million customers after just eight months of operation.

The French-speaking Caribbean country has a population of 8.5 million, but a combined fixed and cellular telephone penetration of just 5.7 percent. Digicel invested $260 million in Haiti — thought to be the largest investment by an international company in what is the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

Digicel also launched new telecommunications services in additional markets, including Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos and Bonaire.

And the company also expanded into Central and South America last year, with its acquisition of telecommunications companies in El Salvador and Guyana and French Guiana.

The burgeoning company also went past the milestone of 3,000 staff in 2006 and introduced a company-wide employee share option programme, designed to reward each Digicel employee for outstanding contributions.