It's $2.99 from LIME - Telecoms company rolls out new flat calling rate ahead of competitor
Published:Friday | June 7, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter
LIME has fired the first salvo in the latest price war gripping the telecommunications sector, announcing yesterday a sharp 60 per cent cut in its call rate, or $2.99 for prepaid mobile customers calling any network in Jamaica, the United States, Canada, and landlines in the United Kingdom.
The landline and mobile company's customers started using the new rate effective midnight.
Immediately after LIME's chief executive officer (CEO), Garfield Sinclair, made the announcement at the entity's headquarters on Carlton Crescent during a webcast via the company's social media pages, Digicel signalled that it would turn up the heat on its main competitor "very soon".
In a brief statement, Digicel CEO Barry O'Brien said the company was coming with "something bigger and better".
The new round in the price face-off between the two major telecommunications providers has been triggered by last week's announcement by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) of a reduction in the mobile termination rate to $1.10 as of July 1 this year.
Sinclair told LIME customers and journalists that effective today, LIME's standard Talk EZ prepaid customers would now enjoy the company's "historically low $2.99 per minute" rate.
"All calls are going to continue to be billed on a per-second basis in order to deliver even more savings to consumers," he pointed out.
To activate the new rates for the Talk EZ plan, LIME customers must dial1231#.
"We expect that this all-time low rate is going to give consumers who are now sitting on the fence the best incentive to come over to the new value network," Sinclair added.
Postpaid rate
While LIME's rate to its Talk EZ prepaid customers has dipped from $6.99, the company's CEO said its postpaid customers would continue to pay this rate across network.
According to Sinclair, LIME's postpaid customers currently enjoy the best postpaid deal anywhere in the world.
"The post-paid customer pays $1.99 per minute to call on LIME's network and $2.99 per minute to call the US, Canada, and UK landlines," he said.
In a direct challenge to Digicel, Sinclair said: "We don't want to be uncharitable. We welcome the competition's response to this to pass on the value to customers. That's all we are saying."
And as Digicel sets its sights on the fixed-line market, Sinclair said his company was ready and prepared for the challenge. Digicel announced that it would enter the landline market beginning next month.
Sinclair said that when LIME first introduced Talk EZ with reduced rates a year ago, the company ended the fiscal year with a 16 per cent increase in subscriber base and its mobile revenue jumped by 14 per cent.
"We are looking for a growth spurt along that line," he said.