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By now you’ve heard of Digicel’s new Calling Plans announced in face of the coming adjustment in the Cross Network Calling Rate to Ja$1.10 per minute. These new rates had been announced by the OUR (Office of Utilities Regulation) at 2:30pm on Thursday May 30th 2013 and’ll become effective Monday July 1st 2013.

The OUR’s new rates are based on the LRIC (Long Run Incremental Cost Model) and becomes effective Monday July 1st, 2013 and will last until June 30, 2018. This is a sharp decline of JA$3.90 per minute from the last Cross-Network Rate of JA$5.00 that was last set on Sunday July 15th 2012 by the OUR.

Digicel of course took issue with these new rates but in the end it’s clear they have to accept in the face of competition from LIME, which has already announced their new Talk EZ Plans with an On-Net Cross Network and International Calling Rate of Ja$2.99 per minute as per Kelroy’s article LIME Jamaica Announces All Network $2.99 Prepaid One Rate.

If this sound like déjà vu it is; it happened last year again AFTER LIME took the lead and announced the following rates with Talk EZ launched at 12:01pm on Friday June 15th 2012:

  • $1.99 per minute for postpaid mobile customers for on-net LIME Calls

  • $2.99 for minute for prepaid to call LIME mobile and International numbers

  • $6.99 per minute for Prepaid and Postpaid to call the other network numbers, inclusive of Telecom Provider Digicel and Landline

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Digicel then launched Digicel 4G as well as their Sweetest Deal suite of plans as noted in Digicel launches 4G Mobile and JA$2.89 Sweeter in a bid – Jamaican Voice + Data Summer Wars. But Digicel hadn’t made it transparent or easy to access, locking in customers to a Plan once they chose it.

digicel-299-rates

So now fast forward to June 2013. LIME’s Talk EZ Plan effectively looks like Flat Rate Calling:

  • $2.99 per minute for postpaid mobile customers for on-net LIME Calls

  • $2.99 for minute for prepaid to call LIME mobile and International numbers

  • $2.99 per minute for Prepaid and Postpaid to call the other network numbers, inclusive of Telecom Provider Digicel and Landline

Talk EZ is activated in the same exact way too: dial *123*1#.

Digicel, in a direct counteraction to LIME’s lack of choice with their revamped Talk EZ Plan, has decided to draw for their Smith and Wesson six-shooter in a Plan Shootout:

  1. The Brawta Plan

  2. The Gimme Five Extra Plan

  3. The Double Bubble Plan

  4. The $2.99 Plan (all with per second billing)

  5. The $2.49 Plan

  6. The $2.89 Sweet Plan (per minute billing)

Digicel’s Tariffs & Rates shows the new Rates broken down in greater detail. The Brawta, Gimme Five and Double Bubble Plan are all activated as follows:

  • Sending five (5) SMS (Short Messaging Service) or Text Messages

  • Topping up with $200

  • Talking for Five (5) minutes

The Brawta Plans and Gimme Five Plans are detailed as follows:

  • 55 minutes of free talk

  • 200 texts

  • 10 MB of data with free nights

  • 55 international minutes

  • Free monthly credit

  • Cash back after talking for five minutes

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The Double Bubble Plan doubles your Credit once you top up with more than JA$200 and has the following benefits:

  • 10 minutes of talk time

  • 10 Digicel text messages

  • 25 international minutes

To get the services, send the following text of “223” to 137 and then use the following USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) Codes:

  1. *156*45# for the $2.99 Prepaid Plan

  2. *156*45*6# to opt out of the $2.99 Prepaid Plan

  3. *134# for the International Calling Plans

The last three (3) are of greatest interest to more adult users, with the first three (3) in the list being geared towards Milennials (ages 18-28). Somewhat disappointed that Digicel has yet to announce any Postpaid plans. However like the last time, they took awhile to make that announcement for Postpaid in what became the Digicel Anywhere Plan as note in Digicel intros the Anywhere Plan for Postpaid. So stay tuned to this blog for details on that announcement.

With the DL600 as described in Kelroy’s article Digicel to launch Affordable Android-powered 4G Smartphone in May out an’ about selling for approximately JA$7000, this Summer is sizing up to be a very Wild and Crazy ride for Digicel customer. Stay tuned!

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