THE LIME Jamaica branded telecom continued to gain mobile subscribers at double-digit levels up to its first-quarter ending June 2015, according to its regional telecom parent Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC).

Concurrently, CWC announced that it started cross-selling products from its recently acquired regional cable provider Columbus Communications which trades as FLOW.

“LIME growth was driven by continued subscriber additions in Jamaica [up] 17 per cent where investment in our mobile network led to revenue growth of 24 per cent,” stated Phil Bentley, chief executive of CWC in the financials released this week.

The financial release avoided disaggregating the actual size of the local subscriber base. However, the CWC annual report indirectly gave the size of the network at some 820,330 subscribers based on revealing the local growth in numbers and as a percentage up to March 2015.

Additionally, the late June introduction of number portability affected LIME’s growth very little as the service came a few days before the close of its quarter. Number portability allows mobile customers the ability to switch networks while keeping their original phone numbers.

The rise in LIME mobile subscribers come as total mobile revenues across CWC’s various country territories remained flat year on year. Mobile revenues account for 40 per cent of total group revenue for CWC.

The financial release did not disclose CWC’s bottom-line profit but indicated that group revenue grew 4.0 per cent to US$583 million.

“In the first quarter we have made a good start on integration and have maintained momentum through organic growth. Mobile revenue was flat against the prior year and good progress was made in broadband and video,” stated Bentley.

In November 2014, CWC announced an agreement to acquire Columbus International for US$3.025 billion, which was completed on 31 March 2015. Bentley indicated this week that the integration process remained smooth thus far.

“[A] new retail store format has been developed with plans in place to harmonise our product offering under the FLOW brand; and early results from cross-selling initiatives have been positive. Based on the first quarter’s trading we maintain our guidance for the year,” stated Bentley.

For a number of years CWC subsidiary operations in the Caribbean traded under the name LIME. But following the merger with Columbus Communications, the consumer business of LIME will in future trade under the name Flow, explained its auditors.