TELECOMMUNICATIONS company LIME yesterday announced that it was slashing its landline to mobile rate to $6.99 and that it will also start billing those calls on a per second basis.

The measures become effective August 1.

Yesterday, a news release from LIME reported its managing director for Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, Garry Sinclair, as suggesting that the company's decision was made possible by the OUR's amendment to the Telecommunications Act that set an interim mobile termination rate of $5 per minute.

"Thanks to the recent amendments to the Telecommunications Act and the OUR's reduction in the mobile termination rates, we now have the opportunity to revise the rates on landline services and give Jamaicans more value," the news release quoted Sinclair.

"As soon as the courts ruled in favour of the OUR in the recent challenge by Digicel, we petitioned the OUR to lower our landline rates, and having now received their approval, we are lowering our rates and implementing per second billing on these calls," he said.

Digicel had brought legal action against the OUR in June, shortly after the regulator announced the new termination rate.

However, the company lost the case and eventually decided against any further court challenge to the OUR.

Yesterday, Sinclair said, "The new rate, which applies to business and residential customers, replaces the previous structure with rates as high as $8.50. We are committed to ensuring that all our customers get the best value for telecoms services. That was the motivation for our historic Talk EZ rate and that is the motivation for introducing $6.99 for landline customers."

LIME said that the new rate affects all landline services, however, it does not include the special telephone tax.

On June 14, LIME introduced a $1.99 and $2.99 per minute rate for its post and prepaid customers, as well as a cross-network rate of $6.99.

"All our historic low rates are billed on a per second basis, which makes a big difference in these tough economic times, since consumers only pay for what they use," Sinclair added.