Dear Editor,

I am all for competition but this new push by LIME to slash rates to unprecedented levels is puzzling. From an accounting standpoint, cuts of 75 per cent in call costs will still lead to a loss, even if customer base is doubled and revenue per customer remains the same. From a marketing standpoint CLARO tried the same thing along with megaphone, Freedom and others. Look where they are now - owned by Digicel.

As a long-time customer of LIME I'm personally happy with cheaper rates, but is this a wise move? Digicel has four times the customer base that LIME has, and if a price war were to ensue they would have the reserves and stamina to sell airtime close to cost for a longer period than LIME, with a potential shutdown of LIME and a monopoly (even if temporary) once more.

Jamaica is top three in the world in cellular phone penetration at almost one per member of the population. This has led to us having one of the most technologically advanced and reliable systems in the world. I sincerely hope this impending price war doesn't lead to a diluted product raft with unreliability issues.

Richard Smith

Richardmc1999@yahoo.com