LIME's gamble may not pay off

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I agree with the views of Richard Smith in his letter 'LIME stands to lose', published on June 16.

I'm sure the analysts at LIME did their calculations and used sophisticated models and have inside information that I'm not privy to, but on the face of it, this move does not seem rational.

I may be wrong, but speaking as an outside observer, I think the biggest factor behind the continued dominance of Digicel is the issue of number portability.

As long as someone is faced with the challenge of telling all their 200-plus contacts that they have a new number (and it is doubtful if those persons will then remember the new number), switching costs will remain high, and LIME's customer base will remain static.

Maybe the projections showed that if call rates were reduced by a large extent, the benefit would outweigh the costs and entice persons to switch. But how valid are the assumptions?

Given the track record of LIME's marketing function, I won't hold my breath waiting to see if they are.

PETER BARRETT

dudleypbarrett@yahoo.com

Kingston 10