It's by no means a price war between the two telecommunications providers bmobile and Digicel for their 4G data plans. This was the view of the mobile operators yesterday as both companies took out full-page advertisements publicising their new promotions.
In the daily newspapers yesterday, Digicel advertised 5GB for $129 for its new 4G mobile broadband plan. The advertisement included a special promotion for 1GB for $86, 5 GB is for $129 and a new HUAWEI Mediapad 7 Lite Tablet-postpaid with data for $999. Bmobile's promotion for its post-paid 4G customers is a 5GB a month plan for only $179. No hidden fees and no security deposit.
The term GB means gigabytes, which is usually used in the world of computing to describe disk space, data storage space and system memory, according to whatsabyte.com. In a telephone interview yesterday Penny Gomez, Digicel's communication manager said, "What you see and read is what you get. There is no hidden information."
She discounted the fact that Digicel was engaging in a price war with Bmobile, which launched its official 4G network last week Monday. Digicel launched its 4G network in May promising their customers a unique, reliable, super-fast Internet speed.
Asked if Digicel has lowered its prices in response to the Bmobile 4G launch, Gomez said, "No. We have been about our business and we had these plans in train. Gomez stated that the Irish-owned company had been planning and strategising to put new promotions in place for the Christmas.
She explained Digicel has its analysts who consistently review the market and see what is current and relevant in order to make their customers happy, as there is always an opportunity to add value. Gomez said that the special offer for the 5GB was in keeping with the Christmas campaign-"Lets share a smile this Christmas."
"We normally have promotions at Christmas, so these offers were in the making for awhile. We often look at the range of services to find several ways of adding value for our customers, tailored to suit their needs." She said the promotions would run indefinitely, until Digicel implements another one.
Meanwhile in an emailed response, executive vice president of Bmobile Ronald Walcott said: "Bmobile has made a commitment to offer mobile data users in T&T the best value for money and as such our sole focus is on delivering that value to customers." Walcott explained the prices shown for Bmobile and Digicel in the ads are for two completely different services.
He said, "The fine print of Digicel's ad exposes that these rates are for 'data only' devices. Only people accessing the competitor's service with dongles, Mifi devices (special modems) or Tablet computers will get these rates. The rates will not apply to anyone using a 4G phone.
He said: "In fact, according to the ad, upon activation of this service, Digicel will deactivate voice and sms service from the user's SIM card. Also there are less visible additional fees and charges to be paid in order to get this service from them."
In comparison, Walcott said, Bmobile's ad, which has no fine print, no hidden fees and no security deposit and is for customers using 4G phones.
He stated clearly that Bmobile has not advertised comparable plans for "Data only" devices. "However, we do plan to and those prices will be guided by our philosophy to give customers value for money and not make pricing cause citizens to be excluded from using mobile 4G services,"