Digicel hits back at LIME

Digicel has responded to LIME’s criticism of a decision by former Prime Minister Andrew Holness to remove a key condition in the merger of its network with Claro's.

The telecoms company, in a release today, demanded that its competitor stop what it described as outrageous, the public bashing of Government officials and called for the company to instead address its weak business performance.

Digicel says its deal with Claro is in the interest of consumers and insisted that Holness’ decision was not only legally sound, but is supported by the newly appointed Minister of Mining, Energy and ICT Philip Paulwell.

Digicel argues that the Telecoms Act does not permit the then minister with responsibility for telecoms, former Prime Minister Holness, to impose any conditions on the approval of the deal. It says an imposition of conditions would be unlawful.

The company says when it received an initial approval from the Bruce Golding administration, it followed the required process to make it clear that the stipulation to operate two networks concurrently was uneconomical and unworkable. Digicel says it also consulted with Paulwell, who was the Opposition spokesman at the time, and he agreed that the requirement was impractical.

It says its offer to reduce its cross-network rates for both prepaid and post-paid customers by $3.50 per minute at peak rate and $2.50 per minute at off peak respectively on calls to other networks would benefit consumers.