Telecommunications Company LIME announced yesterday that they will be cutting call rates for on net and international calls to a low of $2.99 per minute. This is being offered to customers under what LIME has dubbed TALK EZ. On the surface, the move seems legitimate but if one closely examines the proposal, we realize how incredibly naïve LIME is being and that this move is little more than a poorly veiled attempt to once again trapJamaica’s mobile users in their web of poor mobile service. I have several issues with this new undertaking and I wish to discuss them
LIME is optimistic that this move will lure customers away from Digicel, but I’m wondering if LIME’s network can accommodate a huge surge in customers. Their network just might collapse. Digicel currently covers 90% of the island, what is LIME’s coverage? Kingston, St. Andrew, St. Catherine (my friend pointed out that he gets no coverage in Linstead) and probably the urban parts of St. James? This isn’t enough. LIME’s marketing strategy is all over the place and quite frankly, it is whack! Somebody clearly didn’t do their homework. They need to understand that before they can really attract customers, they have to do the groundwork, a key part of that is island wide coverage. My friend joked that LIME has about five hundred (500) customers on their network, while Digicel has two (2) million and counting. It sounds funny, but it might just be true. LIME is trailing Digicel by far and this is a desperate attempt to play catch up. 2.99 per minute is useless if you don’t have signal and proper reception. How are customers going to utilize that service? Digicel will always stand above LIME because the average man can still talk for five minutes and get the next 25 free, no matter where in Jamaica he’s calling from. The vast majority of Jamaicans aren’t Blackberry users, that vast majority wants to know that they can talk free after 11pm, that they can send five (5) texts and get 100 free. I repeat, you need good signal and good reception to do that. LIME still hasn’t mastered that, $2.99 or no $2.99.
While LIME has packaged this move as customer driven and inspired, I can’t help but wonder what happens to the company itself. First of all, how are they able to afford this? LIME recently lost something like $20 billion; as far as I see it, the company is now on very shaky ground financially and this promotion might just be the last nail in a coffin that’s already closed. Secondly, this move effectively guarantees the death of the landline for LIME. With cheaper mobile rates, why would their customers need the expensive landline? This equals more financial losses for the company. Pretty soon LIME might have to raise mobile costs again, because these rates are simply not practical or feasible. Where will that leave the customers? Out in the cold, that’s where. Not even the most profitable mobile providers in theUnited Statesare providing these rates. It is a desperate grab for customers and quite frankly it is ludicrous. LIME has waited too long to play catch up and whileJamaicamay have forgiven LIME, the name change has not erased the memory of the years of abuse and neglect we suffered under that monopoly. I can personally recall not having service at home, and having to go through all manner of evils just to be able to check my credit – it was simply absurd. We may have forgiven you LIME, but we will never forget.
Finally, my decision to stay with Digicel is cemented by the fact that Digicel gives back to Jamaica. I was touched the other day when I read in The Jamaica Observer that The Digicel Foundation had decided to sponsor that young man in St. Catherine who had started a computer shop with only one computer, Digicel gave him an additional six I believe. The shows and initiatives we all love so much, all brought to you by Digicel. Whether it is School’s Challenge Quiz, or Rising Stars, or the Ity and Fancy Cat Show – it’s all Digicel. Digicel took the first step to lower rates; they lowered rates that serve the customers without putting their company at a huge loss – that for me is true innovation, that for me is the Bigger, Better Network. Do not be fooled by this drastic cut, there has to be a catch. LIME needs to tell us what it is. Can a company named LIME really provide an authentically sweet deal for mobile users in Jamaica? Frankly, I highly doubt it.
Yes yes! I went into an outlet to buy my phone card today and in talking I told the rep ‘I don’t care if LIME offers 1 dollar per minute .. I won’t switch’
My initial reaction was – WHAT’S THE CATCH … and if their phone service is as crappy as this useless internet that stresses me out then I would never! They can keep that!
DWL at the 500 customers ..that really is something to be looked into! How will they cope with a much larger customer base!
Let me firstly say, i’m no LIME fan boy, actually was a major digicel fan boy even when their data network was rubbish i was the one going around saying, yeah the’re just having a warm time managing the massive increase in blackberry usage, and when they aquire Claro that will be solved…
But i have some things to say in regards to the points you’ve put forth.
1. Ability of the network to manage
– Good point but well i think thats a problem they would love to have
– As i mentioned earlier Digicel has that issue rite now with their data services
2. Coverage
– As can be seen by the following links, the jamaica coverage battle has long ended digicel won, but lime did eventually get there
http://www.time4lime.com/jm/about_us/coverage_map.jsp
http://gsma.streetmap.co.uk/custom/barts/gsma/TemplateNTTDocomo.srf?cu=NTTDocomo&id=63
3. Sustainability
– This like all the other points are good, however, there was a reference made to this point in the Gleaner Article for the Talk EZ plan
Regulatory rate drops and a massive write-off of mobile assets allowed it to offer those rates, management stated.
“This plan is sustainable,” reasoned Rochelle Cameron, head of legal and regulatory affairs at LIME, at the head office in Kingston yesterday.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120615/lead/lead1.html
4. Giving back
– LIME too has a foundation that has done many things obviously not as much as Digicel, but this is to be expected because as you have pointed out they have been losing massive amouts of money since 2008 I believe
Your statement on the weakness of the networks is in reverse. Have you ever tried to make a call, sms or use data in a crowded area on Digicel?
Having complete coverage when your alone isn’t everything either I don’t think.
Digicel drops calls, data and has an I don’t give a fuck group of customer service reps lately.
You might want to be a bit more objective and try the Lime service then update this blog.
After all, most of this is what your friends said, atleast that’s what you said.
Ok I will take the bait and comment. First of all, if you know me u know I am not a LIME advocate – I despise them for their treatment towards me re: customer service. But since I am all-round customer (postpaid cell, landline, wired net and modem), I’m gonna comment on a few things u have said above.
Of course $2.99 isn’t sustainable. The idiots who think it is are..well…idiots. By comparison though, LIME has had the cheaper rates for some time now.
You mention avg Jamaican not having a BB – I’m not sure what that has to do with anything. LIME has stopped touting BB’s for some time now, opting for the iPhone promotion since they got the contract.
I certainly believe it is more affordable to use a LIME phone. LIME does offer some of the benefits that Digicel has re: freenis. It’s obvious u do not own a LIME phone and did very little research on their current promotions before writing this post.
Landlines will still be needed by businesses because of their nature re: network capabilities, etc. So I don’t think they worry about that. Also close observance would have shown that they actually kicked up the rate of cell-landline.
Re: coverage – personally I’ve had better quality coverage on my smartphone than I did with Digi or Claro. So I also disagree on this front. The one thing I don’t complain about with LIME is the quality of their network. Whether it can hold a significant number of customers, i don’t know. But it seems to be doing okay with the ones it has right now.
Digicel’s strategy to ‘give back’ is really just that, a strategy. If u were a fly on the wall in negotiation deals in their sponsorship office, you would know this. I wouldn’t recommend u let it fool you.
My sincere apologies for the epistle. As I said, I have many struggles with LIME and certainly don’t agree with most of their marketing tactics. I don’t even benefit from their latest one, which I wouldn’t even have known if I didn’t call, hold for 20 minutes and ask. But I just felt like you were just on a rant without any real basis for this post.
First of all, I had a lot of difficulty reading your post because of the red font. I get that its for the effect but maybe a bigger font or more space between the words would relieve your vision-impaired readers.
I moved from Jamaica 3years ago so maybe I’m no longer qualified to comment on Digi and/or LIME services but here goes…
I did the whole BB plan from both digi and LIME and my god Digi just pissed me off. I felt I was spending waayyy more money than necessary. I much preferred LIME’S package and oddly I had much better coverage with LIME than with Digicel. But this was 3yrs ago.
I came back for summer 2010 and tried out Digicel’s Gimme 5 promo…again I had terrible coverage and I spent so much money trying to get my 25mins free because well…the calls were “unfortunately” dropped around 4mins into the call. But this was 2yrs ago.
I also spent a ton of money because of digicel’s high cross network rates. But this was 3yrs ago.
I had a good run with digicel from 2001 till about 2007 then I grew up, went to univ and required more services from my phone. It was at this time I found Digicel to be really expensive and LIME much better suited for my needs.
But I hear different stories on my Twitter everyday about how each telecommunications company is ripping off this customer or the next. It all depends on your needs…and I guess Digicel is meeting yours just fine…all the best with that!
1. $2.99 is indeed sustainable.
2. Lime does have island-wide coverage
3. Traveling along the Junction main road in ST. Mary there are several sections that there is no Digicel coverage.
4. Land-line will still be needed by business customer
Digicel effort to keep rates high especially cross network rates is one of the reason that drive Claro out of the market
I had many issues with the way Cable & Wireless at that time use to go about presenting a package to me for X price and then suddenly change the price of the package without first informing me, so I can have the choice of deciding if I’m going to continue the service or cancel it. This caused me to owe them over ten thousand ($10,000) dollars, which I decided I won’t pay because they changed the pricing of my unlimited $499 mobile internet plan without even sending me a text prior to changing it. To make long story short, after I called them to ask why sent me text telling me that I need to top up, that was when I was told that the pricing of the plan was changed from the April of that year; and that I now (in about August of that year) owe over $10,000 which I have to pay before I service can be fully functional again. They had to audacity to tell me that they had advertised it in the “Business” section of the Gleaner, which I should see if I bought and read the Gleaner in April of that year. This made me extremely furious, as they were telling that it was my fault for not knowing because I don’t read the “Business” section of the Gleaner.
However, I now a Lime number and I don’t find any real sordid problems with them as yet. I’m in Clarendon and I never had any signal issues with their service, and their $2.99 EZ Talk is the best and most explictly advertised package I have ever seen. They made it their primary duty to tell the world from day one all the fine prints if you should decide to activate the EZ Talk plan (which is a PER SECOND BILLING). They (from text to Customer Service to television interviews) clearly told the public that they would lose all the benefits they had in their previous plans, such XL, Bundle packages, etc., if they activated the EZ Talk before using up all the minutes they had on the previous plan. Also, the CEO said on Smile Jamaica that the EZ Talk is sustainable and will be here to stay, as they had decided to absorb a loss of about $15 Billion due to expense that they will have to pay Digicel for interconnectivity until the Digicel comply with the OUR’s order for Digicel & Lime to set their interconnectivity rate to $5.00.
Digicel has a serious problem with downward direction of call rates, as they claim it would seriously affect their reputation in telecommunication market. Imagine, a downward direction in call rates is going to seriously affect Digicel’s reputation in the telecommunication market? This, to me, is clearly telling us that Digicel consider itself (and has been doing through their consistent high rates compared to other networks over the years) to be High Price Telecommunication company geared toward mostly the rich and powerful; and that is why Digicel feel its reputation would be seriously affected. Digicel said they wouldn’t reduce rates any lower than the $8.99 plan they had established long before Lime’s massive reduction–thinking they could take us for a damn idiot,–but suddenly decided to be a dog to their vomit by creating $2.89 Sweet Deal. This Sweet Deal is gives you ten free texts, 1 hour free nights, about ten minutes gimmi 5, and PER MINUTE BILLING. NOTE CAREFULLY THAT IN DIGICEL’S ADVERTISEMENTS, THEY NEVER EXPLICITLY TELL THE PUBLIC THAT THE $2.89 PLAN WILL BE CHARGING THEM ON A PER MINUTE BILLING; WHICH MEANS THAT IF THEY TALK FOR 1 SECOND, THEY WILL STILL BE CHARGED $2.89 EVEN THOUGH THEY DIDN’T TALK FOR A MINUTE.
Finally, let me say that Digicel is hell bent on making itself a monopoly in Jamaica so they can jack up back the rates and continue their treasured reputation of being the High Pricing Telecommunication company in Jamaica, regardless of the fact that most of their customers are not wealthy persons but poor persons. THE ONLY ONE ONE BENEFITING FROM THIS $2.89 SWEET DEAL IS DIGICEL!!! That’s my contribution to your posting.
PS: One of Digicel’s $2.89 advertisement of Power 106 made the $2.89 plan loud and clear to anyone; but quickly and softly said “Per minute billing. Conditions apply”.
I realized you didn’t approve my comment. I am sure there was no form of abusive or derogatory language in my comment, but only outlined the issue I had with the named Lime and how Digicel is not really for the people as you were trying putting across, since their call packages haven’t been better than Lime or Claro.
Ignore my comment, as I just realized you didn’t delete my first comment.
I mean ignore the comment that was accusing you of deleting my first comment.