Barbados Today

KINGSTON — LIME slashed the rate it charges prepaid customers to make calls to other networks from $6.99 to $2.99 a minute Wednesday at midnight.

The action comes a few weeks ahead of a regulatory requirement of the mobile operators to lower the rate they charge for incoming calls to their networks from $5 a minute to $1.10.

“As of today, after activating the LIME’s Talk EZ Plan, customers are going to enjoy our standard rate to call anyone in Jamaica, in addition to landlines in the UK, US and Canada,” said LIME Managing Director Garfield Sinclair. “We are going to take the difference between today and July 1, because we want to give customers value right away.”

Effective date

July 1 is the effective date that the Office of Utilities Regulation has set for the two operators to comply with the rate reduction.

Following LIME’s announcement, Digicel Jamaica CEO Barry O’Brien issued a statement saying that “our customers can feel confident that Digicel is coming with something bigger and better – an announcement is coming very soon”.

“After years of advocating mobile termination rates (the rates one network charges the other to terminate calls) simply because they were unjustifiably high in the first place, LIME is pleased that the OUR’s rate is favourable,” Sinclair said during a live chat via streaming at the company’s headquarters yesterday.

LIME’s post-paid customers will continue to pay $6.99 for off-net calls.

“Our post-paid customers already have the best deal anywhere in the world with $1.99 to call on network, the US, UK, Canada,” said Sinclair. “This announcement will affect a vast majority of our customers who are pre-paid.”

The company hopes to take additional market share. (Observer)