LIME and Digicel at loggerheads

Telecommunications company LIME has sounded a warning to its competitor, Digicel, that it will be taking action against the entity for what it describes as a "material breach" of an alleged confidential agreement between the two main players in the telecoms market.

On Thursday, Digicel said it had asked the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) to carry out an investigation into LIME's "call handling which results in some consumers being unfairly charged".

Digicel said it had "detected unusual calling patterns to LIME numbers across 12 of LIME's Caribbean markets and launched an investigation which discovered that consumers may be improperly charged for calls to certain LIME numbers" in November last year.

However, LIME has fired back claiming that Digicel's statement is "malicious and potentially libellous ... in circumstances where the parties were collaborating in good faith".

In its response to Digicel's claims yesterday, LIME noted that both companies operate under a confidentiality agreement and they will be taking action against Digicel for breaching this agreement.

LIME said they had been working with their competitor to resolve the issue and the issue was identified and resolved in January this year.

But Digicel is contending that despite efforts working with LIME to rectify the issue of customers being inappropriately charged, the problem still persists.

"We have tried over the course of many months to work with LIME to rectify this issue, but our requests have largely fallen on deaf ears. As such, we have no other choice but to ask the OUR to intervene as quickly as possible," Digicel's chief executive officer, Barry O'Brien, said.