Business
Jamaica: Wireless competition and rivalry intensifies
(Jamaica Gleaner) – Mobile phone company Digicel Jamaica has accused LIME Jamaica of grossly understating its customer base by close to half in order to influence regulations aimed at cutting interconnection rates.
LIME has said its active cellphone customers stood at 290,000 but on Wednesday, Digicel with some two million subscribers said LIME had more than half-million active subscribers, and accused its rival of waging a “misinformation campaign”.
“We can only assume that LIME has resolved to engage in a concerted misinformation campaign as a means to try to get its own way, and perhaps this explains all the recent talk of LIME suggesting that it is considering pulling out of Jamaica,” said Digicel Jamaica CEO Mark Linehan in a written comment Wednesday.
“Secondly, LIME’s CEO has repeatedly misrepresented to the media, and by extension the Government and its shareholders, LIME’s mobile subscriber base by indicating that it only has circa 380,000 mobile subscribers (of which they say 290,000 are active), when in truth we know, based on credible market data, that LIME has in excess of 500,000 active mobile subscribers.”
LIME did not dispute Digicel’s claim when asked for comment, but chose to reiterate its push for legislative action.
“Our focus remains squarely on the issues that are of consequence and as such we are greatly encouraged by Minister Paulwell’s recent announcement which emphasised his commitment to passing the emergency legislation immediately,” said LIME Jamaica managing director Garry Sinclair on Thursday.
“This is our paramount focus as it will deliver true value for consumers in a market where the super dominant player operates unfettered with an over 75 percent market share,” he said.
