Digicel announces rate drop
KINGSTON, Jamaica – DIGICEL has now given prepaid customers the option to make calls for $2.99 per minute — billed on a per-second basis — to other networks.
The move by Digicel, which became effective at midnight, comes a week after archrival LIME slashed the price it charge its customers to make off net calls from $6.99 to $2.99.
Previously, Digicel’s customers were charged rates that ranged from $6.99 to $8.99 to make off-net calls.
Both mobile carriers have lowered their rates ahead of the drop of mobile termination rates from $5 to $1.10 on July 1.
What’s more, Digicel hit back by increasing the number of free minutes, extra credit and text messages it gives customers with six new plans, a move the company says was requested by its clients. Customers have the option to choose the plan that best suits their individual needs, the company said.
“What we did was a survey and our customers said they wanted choice and value,” said Barry O’Brien, the CEO of Digicel Jamaica. “Value means different things, some said they wanted freeness and some said they wanted the lowest rates.”
Research was done over an extended period, in anticipation of the new rates that were going to come onstream said O’Brien.
In response to the announcement, CEO of LIME Jamaica Garry Sinclair said that the multiple rates will merely make the information hard to understand.
“Multiple calling plans with confusing information that requires customers to do one thing to get something else will only further confuse the Jamaican public and probably not deliver any incremental value,” he said. “We continue to believe that a simple, low rate is what consumers need.”
Digicel’s all new line-up gives consumers a choice of one of six plans, which are: the Brawta Plan, the Gimme Five Extra Plan, the Double Bubble Plan and the $2.99 which are billed on a per-second basis.
On the other hand, the $2.49 Plan and $2.89 Sweet Plan are billed per minute.
“We not only matched their rate, we gave customers more,” said the company’s public relations manager, Jacqueline Burrell-Clarke.
For example, customers can opt for the $2.99 plan, which allows them to call off-net at that rate, as well as 25 free international minutes after the first five minutes.
But Digicel’s post-paid customers will pay between $8.99 and $14 for off-net calls.
“Our post-paid customers already get great value, they get calling rates as low as $1 and value with certain plans,” said O’Brien.
All the new plans are underpinned by Digicel’s super-fast 4G Mobile network which sees customers surfing, streaming and sharing more, the mobile carrier said.
Last month, Digicel announced that it will, in the next two months, seek to capture a share of the lucrative fixed-line business dominated by LIME.
“We are going to do to the landline business what we did to the mobile business when we launched back in 2000,” O’Brien said.
Digicel will use wireless technology to roll out the fixed-line service, which, he said, currently has approximately 300,000 numbers.
Columbus Communications Jamaica, parent company of cable TV giant Flow also offers landline service.