There are some parts of Haiti that don't have clean, running water, electricity, proper roads or hospitals. Yet there's a Digicel phone mast in virtually every nook and cranny of the impoverished Caribbean state, and Haiti's citizens have embraced the technology lovingly.
Just over 12 months after its launch there, Digicel has signed up 1.5 million Haitians, about four times what Denis O'Brien, Digicel's founder and sole shareholder, had hoped for.
It is the most successful launch in the Caribbean by Digicel, surpassing Jamaica, where the company has 1.4 million customers.
Mr O'Brien hopes to have two million subscribers in Haiti by March, and believes more than half of the estimated 10 million population will ultimately have a mobile phone.
The launch is all the more remarkable when you consider that only 53 per cent of Haitians are considered literate, and there is 60 per cent unemployment.
"It's been a great success," said Mr O'Brien from Port Salut . "It's exceeded all of our initial expectations."
The average spend is low by western standards, only about $12 or $13 a week, but is high in a country where the majority of people are unemployed and most work the land to put food on the table. Digicel employs about 650 people in Haiti.
Mr O'Brien acknowledged the poverty in the country and lack of basic utilities and infrastructure, but said Digicel's extensive communications infrastructure could help Haiti in the long term.
"It's vital to have a good communications network and it helps make other things possible. Clearly there is a problem with electricity and running water, but having a good communications network can help with these problems. People will now demand fresh water. This has really helped farmers and fishermen in particular, who are often operating in remote areas."
Mr O'Brien said he would spend about $300 million in capital investment this year on Digicel, which he is hoping to expand into central America and Pacific islands.
The company has been hugely successful since its launch in Jamaica in April 2001, where it had bought a licence for $35 million. It now covers 22 islands, has five million subscribers and is the market leader in most of its markets, wiping the eye of several larger telecoms groups, including Cable & Wireless. The company is estimated to have spent $1.5 billion building its network in the region.
Its success has been built around shaking up its market through innovation.
In Haiti, Digicel undercut its competitors on the price of phones, abolished charges for receiving calls, introduced per-second billing and made phone-charging stations available around the island, an important move in a country where electricity is not widely accessible.
In Europe, these are basic strategies, but in the Caribbean it has revolutionised the way mobile services are marketed. Digicel is now the biggest brand in the sun-kissed region.
Counterfeit bags bearing the Digicel brand are available on the black market - a clear sign of a company's success. The company sponsors the West Indies cricket team and the Haiti national soccer side. It even sponsors all of the teams in Haiti national soccer league.
The striking red and white brand is on virtually every street corner of Haiti, often painted on a roof or a wall.
Mr O'Brien has also been careful to support social projects in each of the markets he has entered, earning the company kudos with local politicians and customers.
In Haiti, the company rebuilt the École Mixte Lagreho, a primary school situated in a hurricane-ravaged rural part of the country. The school reopened in March, and Mr O'Brien has now set a target of rebuilding 20 schools by March 2008.
With Cuba now the only major Caribbean market in which Digicel is not represented, Mr O'Brien is turning his attentions to central America and Pacific islands, where he believes the Digicel model can be replicated.
