IN A move that could pave the way for lower call rates locally, the Telecommunications Appeals Tribunal has dismissed an appeal from Mossel Jamaica Limited against a decision of the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR). In its decision, the OUR had sought to declare Mossel – trading as Digicel – and other mobile public voice carriers, dominant in call termination services.
The ruling opens the door for the OUR to determine whether telecommunications firms have impeded the maintenance or development of effective and fair com-petition in the market.The issue of high termination rate has been a long-standing concern within the sector, with LIME and Claro both accusing the Irish-owned Digicel of anti-competitive behaviour. More
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U2 Connect Location still on Digicel's website
It was the second time I was hearing it in as many weeks. The first story came from a friend, the second from my 71 year old mother. A young lady called, introduced herself using what I will immediately assume was a fake name. Said she was calling on behalf of Digicel, please note my mother is a LIME customer and has been since it was called Jamaica Telephone company, well because she worked there for 30 years too. The young lady then went on to say that they are doing a survey and at the end they will get a SIM card with $5,000 worth of Digicel credit on it. My mother said, but I have no use for that as I am a LIME customer but my daughters have Digicel phones, so go ahead.
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LIME Jamaica incurred a $351-million net loss for the three months to December 31, 2009 compared to a $33-million net profit in the comparative quarter in 2008, as costs associated with financing, depreciation and amortisation increased 70 per cent.
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I’ve timeshifted and I’m spoilt for choice. And the fact is, there are ten of thousands of us in Jamaica, millions in the Caribbean and tens of millions around the world who are also in this place. The place where having choice is standard and your life just doesn’t facilitate a lengthy sit down on someone else’s sayso.
Seriously, when was the last time you sat and watch a TV show…outside of TrueBlood, Bill Maher, maybe Ugly Betty and possibly the video music awards shows. And if you missed an episode for some reason, I am 98% sure you can name two websites ( eztv.it and eztv.org yeah I said it!) where you can either watch it or download it for free or a very small fee and at your own damn convenience. And dare I mention the iPhone and Apple TV users. Then of course when HULU.com gets its American head out of its American ass, then we in the Caribbean plus others around the world will be able to jump in and watch our favourite America programming.
And I’m going to ask you again, when was the last time you sat and watch the news, it’s typically slightly depressing yes but are you like me who tends to get the news pushed to you on Facebook or twitter or by text message. In fact there are times the news breaks right there on Facebook or Twitter while mainstream TV, radio and oh my newspapers play catchup.
But ok,ok so EVERYONE doesn’t have high speed internet and a computer, but alot of people do and here in Jamaica and the Caribbean – if Digicel, Flow, Claro, LIME and a few smart computer resellers have their way- alot more of us will be watching our favourite shows, when we want, how often we want online without the bother of ads or worrying over whether Jamaican Cable operators will bring back HBO or Cinemax. In fact, they can keep em. Just continue to give me highspeed Internet at a decent price and I’ll make Cable TV totally irrelevant in my life. In fact. Not to self: I am so proud of you Ingrid, it’s been 4 months without boring cable on your gorgeous flat screen TV.
So have you time shifted or are you still the old school couch potato, a slave to a Cable TV schedule?
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While updating MobileCaribe.com this morning. I got a call on my landline and it was from L.I.M.E, formerly Cable & Wireless, who I’ve unashamedly called Crabbit & Wicked in the past and many times they deserved it. 
The customer service lady on the phone said they are randomly calling existing Internet customers to offer them 8Mbps of ADSL speed for JA$2,699. If you say yes to the package (which I did) you get the first 30 days at the old rate and you can choose to ask them to turn it back down to your old speed (I had 2mbs but never got more than 875kbps in the 3 years I’ve had it).
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Rudy Gurley and his book
I was busy browsing the Trinidad Guardian’s website when a Google ad with the title C&W Exposed caught my eye, I clicked and look what I found. Had to share. The Book is titled “Sent Overseas” and it was written by Rudy Gurley, former executive of Britain’s Cable & Wireless. The book’s website pitch grabbed me. Here’s what it said:
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LIME, one of the Caribbean’s full service telecomms provider, has partnered with ECIC Holdings Ltd and a number of Eastern Caribbean banks to launch a Mobile banking solution. It will allow LIME’s customers with accounts at any of the member banks, to access their bank information, pay bills and conduct other banking transactions from their mobile phones securely.
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This SiliconCaribe TV video blog is an exclusive prelaunch demo. It’s about a Jamaican startup called Software Architects that has built a mobile phone app that works with even the most basic phone on the market and does things like this:
- allows you to top up on your prepaid minutes from you chosen mobile service provide -LIME, Digicel and send some to a friend too
-allows you to transfer funds between bank accounts
-allows you to pay your bills.
and more to come.
We caught up with them at the entrance of the Digicel Electronics Show weeks go. They were not exhibitors just curious attendees like ourselves. We’ll have more on this Jamaican startup led by CEO Damion Daley pretty soon.
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