LoopUp & Digicel launch Teams telephony in Caribbean

LoopUp and Digicel have partnered to offer Microsoft Teams telephony across the Caribbean, in what they describe as the first Microsoft-certified Operator Connect service available across the region.

Under the agreement, Digicel will sell LoopUp's Operator Connect telephony platform and service to enterprise customers in Caribbean markets where it operates. The service is intended to help organisations bring business calling into Microsoft Teams under Microsoft's certified deployment model.

Users will be able to make and receive calls through Teams on any supported device, while companies can manage telephony alongside workplace messaging and meetings. The arrangement is aimed at businesses seeking to avoid dealing with multiple telecoms providers across different countries.

LoopUp said the launch extends its Operator Connect coverage to more than 100 countries, broadening its reach for multinational companies with Caribbean operations but headquarters elsewhere.

Regional rollout

Digicel Business plans to offer the service to enterprise customers across the region, drawing on its network presence and local customer base. The operator serves organisations in sectors including financial services, hospitality, government and energy, where Microsoft Teams is widely used for internal communications.

Customers are increasingly looking to move away from legacy private branch exchange systems and shift voice services to cloud-based platforms. The Operator Connect model integrates telephony directly into Teams without requiring companies to build and manage the links themselves.

For Digicel, the partnership adds a business voice product to its cloud services portfolio. For LoopUp, it provides a route into Caribbean markets through an established regional communications provider operating in 25 markets across the Caribbean, Central America and South America.

Steve Flavell, Co-Chief Executive Officer of LoopUp, described the agreement as part of the company's broader international growth strategy.

"Partnering with Digicel is a significant milestone in LoopUp's international expansion," said Steve Flavell, Co-Chief Executive Officer of LoopUp. "Not only are we bringing the first Operator Connect capability to the region with Digicel, but we're also extending our market-leading global country coverage for our multinational enterprise customers, who are headquartered elsewhere in the world but have operations throughout the region."

Enterprise demand

The deal reflects a broader shift among large organisations towards consolidating communications tools around platforms such as Teams. Companies with offices in several countries often face separate carrier contracts, local support arrangements and different management systems for fixed-line and business calling services.

LoopUp's model is designed to replace those country-by-country arrangements with a single cloud telephony service linked to Teams. It said this can reduce the burden of managing multiple suppliers and remove the need for legacy on-premise phone equipment.

Digicel said demand from business customers has been driven by the growing use of Teams as a central workplace platform. That has increased demand for telephony integrated into the same interface rather than handled through separate systems.

"Our customers are asking for smarter, simpler ways to communicate," said Liam Donnelly, Chief Business Officer of Digicel Group. "Microsoft Teams has become the platform of choice for many of them. By partnering with LoopUp, we can give our enterprise customers a seamless, fully managed Teams telephony experience, regionwide and now globally, leveraging the simpler and more cost-effective Microsoft-certified Operator Connect approach and backed by the local support and network reach only Digicel can provide."

Digicel serves about nine million customers across mobile, home and business services, while its business division works with thousands of organisations across the region. The new Teams telephony service will be available to Digicel Business customers as part of that enterprise offering.

LoopUp is based in London and focuses on cloud telephony for multinational businesses. The company said its service now offers phone numbers and cloud-based public switched telephone network replacement in more than 100 countries.

The partnership combines LoopUp's multinational Teams telephony offering with Digicel's in-country network and enterprise support presence across the Caribbean.