PHIL Bentley likened Viber and other free call services to squatters.

The CEO of LIME’s parent, CWC, said that the company will continue to block these services amid plans for a US$250 million “unprecedented investment”.

“People are squatting if you like, right in our house and using the bathroom,” Bentley said at press conference held at LIME head office in Kingston last week. “We can’t have that.”

“The telecoms industry is regulated and there is a tax on all calls,” he went on to say. “Essentially somebody like Viber bypasses all that and therefore the Government isn’t collecting its tax of 7.5 cents and we are not collecting the going rate for putting traffic down our network [and] we investmedall this money.”

LIME’s latest investment upgrade in Jamaica will run to 2016. It aims to widen 4G across the island while launching cable TV by next April.

Since July, the telecom oversight body, Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) requested data from telecom providers LIME and Digicel on the nature of the alleged bypass of their networks by voice over internet protocol providers, including Viber.

Both providers have blocked the service and others on their mobile data networks following increased popularity.

Persons however can still use Viber on mobile phones once they switch-off mobile data and piggy-back on WiFi networks, explained LIME CEO Garfield Sinclair at the press conference.

“Using Phil’s analogy, if you come in, at least pay some rent,” added Sinclair. “But they are just coming in, squatting rent-free, that just can’t make sense.

“We manage the use of our bandwidth because its not an infinite source. So we manage through caps and through pricing. But Viber is a particular type of entity that allows you to call a number which provides a voice service over networks that we essentially pay for and are regulated for.”

Sinclair added that its current MVP promotion actually makes it “cheaper” to make overseas calls on the LIME network than Viber to non-Viber numbers.

“A lot of people don’t realise that,” he said. “So economically it’s a better deal just to use us”.

Viber describes itself as a mobile application that allows “you to make phone calls and send text messages to all other Viber users for free! Viber is available over WiFi or 3G”.

Telecoms provider LIME is now testing cable TV service. The company tried mobile TV a few years ago but wants to offer hundreds of cable channels to households, in effect competing against the largest subcriber TV provider in Jamaica, Flow.

LIME continues to grow its subscriber base by double-digits but remains in a loss position. The ‘unprecedented investment’ will likely result in increased finance costs at LIME.

“What of the timeline for LIME to post an after tax profit?”, asked the Observer.

“So that is the path that we are on. I keep saying over and over again that the way you judge and compare telecoms worldwide is on our earning before interest depreciation and amortisation (EBIDTA), primarily because we spend a ton of money on a huge expensive kit,” said Sinclair. “If you judge us that way, what you will see is a clearly improving story year over year”.

Bentley said that “over a three-year period we are expecting to generate cash. That is the key…We wouldn’t be making these investments if we weren’t thinking of generating cash”.

LIME announced in June that it aims to make US$45 million in operating profit for its financial year ending 2015, or 80 per cent more year on year.

Hitting that target, however, falls short of guaranteeing dividends to shareholders. Jamaican companies rarely announce targets; and in the previous financial year Sinclair achieved his announced target of US$25 million in EBIDTA.

However, LIME recorded $3.5 billion in net losses for its year ending March 2014. Additionally, its negative shareholder equity position worsened to $23.8 billion from negative $19.6 billion a year earlier.

The investment forms part of a regional US$1.05 billion network upgrade dubbed ‘Project Marlin’. With this planned investment intended to quadruple fixed-line broadband speeds while enabling more Jamaicans to have reliable access to the Internet.

Bentley visited Jamaica last week and met with Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Phillip Paulwell, and Director General of the OUR, Albert Gordon.

Bentley added that “with these investments so pivotal to the economic success of Jamaica, we again affirm our commitment to being the country’s trusted and most reliable telecommunications partner. For over 140 years, LIME has led the technology revolution to cater to the changing needs of Jamaica, bringing the country even closer to realising its national vision for a connected society driven by innovation.”

The CWC chief also highlighted the positive impact of legislative and regulatory changes to Jamaica’s mobile market which have enabled LIME to deliver the lowest voice call rate to consumers, with a rich array of value-packed Internet pricing plans.