All change for ‘All talk’ and email
(CNS): Local telecommunications provider LIME has announced a number of changes to its services and packages. The All Talk package which offered LIME customers 6,000 minutes a month to any LIME number is splitting into minutes, texts and internet space, while Google is now hosting LIME’s email platform. Anthony Ritch, LIME General Manager, said the new partnership with Google will not only provide access to email but many new portal features for customers. Over the last few weeks LIME residential internet customers have been moved across to the new platform which explains recent glitches in service.
“It’s an exciting move for LIME to partner with Google,” Ritch said. “We are giving our customers access to web based services and apps that they previously didn’t have access to on our old e-mail platform. Our customers will now be able to collaborate on documents, calendars and e-mail with the entire Google community. Another great advantage is that wherever they are in the world they will be able to check their mail over the web with IMAP software (Outlook) or with a mobile device like the Blackberry – all synchronized.”
He said customers will also retain their existing e-mail addresses. “Many of our customers love their candw.ky address and don’t want to lose it,” Ritch added, "and I’m also pleased about that.”
The new portal gives each customer 7 Gigabytes of email storage and comes with all the Google services, such as chat, calendar and docs. “I’m excited about this partnership as once again we have listened to what our customers have been asking for and provided it. There are so many new features for customers to explore and a great Google Apps Help Centre which walks them through how to use the applications, or they can simply watch the video to see how Google Apps can help them communicate more effectively.” concluded Tony Ritch.
Meanwhile, the new All Talk Plus Plan will roll out on 1 August. Post-paid customers will pay the same CI$40 but will get 2,500 LIME Voice minutes instead of 6000, but they will now get 2,500 text messages to any LIME number and 1GB of LIME data instead. The firm said this gives customers an average of up to 10 times the value when compared to normal calling rates.
The company said very few customers came even close to using the 6,000 minutes under the plan but were having to pay on top for texts, which prompted the firms redesigned of the package.
“While our existing All Talk plan was extremely well received, the feedback from our customers indicated that the vast majority of them never use all the minutes available,” LIME’s Chief Commercial Officer Milton Brady said. “They indicated a preference for a mix of voice minutes, text and data. And that’s exactly what ALL Talk Plus offers. We believe that the new plans reflect the changing needs of our customers as more and more people are now using their mobile phones for texting as well as browsing the web.”
Prepaid customers will get a combination of 1,500 voice minutes for calling any land line or mobile number on the LIME network, 1,500 text messages to any LIME number as well as 1GB of data on the LIME network.
The new plan will automatically replace the existing All Talk plan for prepaid customers at the beginning of August and existing post-paid customers, currently on the plan can, if they wish, choose to take up the new All Talk Plus package or remain on their current All Talk package but the old package will not be available to new customers, the company said.
Category: Business
LIME is definitely disrespectful. Making an announcement, not giving people the option of choosing their packages, and then placing it under the guise that it is what the customers asked for, is definitely disrespectful and disgraceful for an organisation that has been in the region for a long time. I believe Cable and Wireless by any other name, LIME or otherwise is still the same rip off company that sees consumers as slaves and not clients. I will definitely leave LIME and encourage others to do so, even if I have to use two cups and a string to communicate. LIME is as SOUR as its name!
Cutting the Alltalk plan should be an option; offer it to the customers instead of just announcing the change. Do packages for the same money ($40).
My mother and many other elderly caymanians do not text nor use internet on their phones. Cutting the talk time by almost 60% is outrageous considering LIME will be collecting the same money. Teenagers or households with are probably going to most benefit from from such a change.
If LIME wants to make a difference have people set up accounts for family or friends and at the end of the month whatever minutes are left allow them to be donated to one or two persons; since they won’t allow carry over minutes!
wats up with lime and there GPRS service,its been down for like a month now and when ever u goes to the office no one knows when the service will be up and running again
I have been with C&W/LIME for a long time and I must say that I was quite pleased to realize that they were going to include texts into their package. I realize that a lot of people have Blackberries (I don’t) and they use Blackberry Messenger for free and have no need for the text hence the outrage expressed by a lot of customers. However, I am one happy person with this change because I have the "All talk" plan and I have never come near 6000 minutes but to had to pay extra for texts. The split of 2500 voice minutes will also suit me just fine as well but I realize that a lot of people will have different needs but I am assuming that the company cannot accommodate everyone so I am assuming that the company has made the decision of 2500 based on several factors, one of which is monitoring people’s usage over time and if the majority of the people are lingering around that amount of minutes then this would be a reason to choose that number.
Now that I have praised the company the one thing I will say is that they have to now include in their package, calls to other networks. Digicel have plans that only apply to calls to their network so LIME if you want to be at least on the same playing field with Digicel, offer something they don’t!
Me, am going with telecayman fiber network. Fiber to to the homes in 2011 via CUC fiber ring. So i hear
"Post-paid customers will pay the same CI$40 but will get 2,500 LIME Voice minutes instead of 6000, but they will now get 2,500 text messages to any LIME number and 1GB of LIME data instead"
This is outrageous if it is compulsory. I doubt that I have sent more than 12 text messages in the past year but I surely use more than 2,500 voice minutes.
They also need to include calling any number (Line, Digicel etc.) in their packages.
C & W was previously the acronym for Cable & Wireless, then it appropriately became the acronym for "Carless and Worthless", so it was changed to LIME (give me another/better reason than Landline, Internet, Mobile and Entertainment please).
Now it is abolutely appropriate to say LIME is the acronym for Limp Incompetent Merciless Excuses.
And they now decide that, withou offerring me any other option, I must change to Google where I must sit and wait 5 mins before I can know whether my email is going to be sent successfully. It used to be 1minute!
Great improvement! If I had an option, Digical is no better, I’d move today (and get them to sue me for my $1,000 bill ). 33 years of doing business with them, and they don’t consult me to see if I want this. I would countersue, and I’m certain have a good chance of a couple of thousand for the aggravation!
"Limp Incompetent Merciless Excuses" .Are you discribing your own anatomy? LOL
I’d love to bring Metro PCS, Sprint or one of those carriers down here to show them what a real network is all about.
Mr. Rich,
as a customer of Lime I would like to say, Please Please give me back my minutes of talk time. – a vast majority
Mr. ‘Rich’
how does one spin so much and still sleep at night? Aren’t you dizzy at bed time?
What a mess! 1GB of data on EDGE(GCM)/ GPRS (CYB) for less minutes and text messages! Come onMr. Ritch… stop thinking that the Caymanian population is stupid.
I’m a student overseas- with an Apple Iphone on a 3G (almost broadband speeds) network and my monthly allowance is 1GB. I watch youtube, surf the net, send/receive emails… the entire works and I struggle to utilise more than half of my allowance.
You are ripping Cayman off by reducing their minutes and text and giving them 1GB of internet. If I had to surf the net to use up my allowance of 1GB on your bogus EDGE/GPRS network I would be calling RCIP to advise them that I have been cruelly tortured!
If you really want to help them, lower this to 500MB and offer network to network minutes- instead of this foolishness about only LIME to LIME! Push for mobile number mobility and allow the Caymanian population to benefit from competition.
While I may not be there to suffer on your network now, it annoys me when I see companies packaging up "pure rubbish" and attempting to sell it to Caymanians thinking they don’t know better! Try your stupid marketing gimmick elsewhere….. we smarter than yah think!
This is absolutely outrageous!
I have never once used all of my texts on the existing set-up, and what use is 1 gig of data to those of us who don’t use their phones for the internet?
To get the same number of minutes as you currently get (ie back to 6,000 minutes), you’re likely to have to pay 2 or 3 times as much are you currently pay (2,500 x 2.4 = 6,000), which is possibly the biggest overnight price increase in the history of mobile telephony.
The fact that it is not optional speaks volumes.
Anyone got a link to Digicel’s packages?
Lime’s quote says a ‘VAST MAJORITY of their customers’ want a mix if talk and text. I’d sure like to hear from the ‘vast majority’ on this. I missed the article where THE VAST MAJORITY marched on Lime’s offices.
For all of those in Grand Cayman who are complaining… just think, over here in the Brac we pay the same rates and we only have GPRS. How ancient is that!!!!
Our interent is rediculous as well.
Maybe they will listen if enough of us do something about this pathetic service!
Since we are now paying more for the Internet when are we going to see a improvement with that service like a better offer for the amount of Mb/s we currently have.
LIME and the other telecom’s providers on this island should be ashame of the service they are providing this country, we are rated at 102 on the speed test for countries in the world, or average Internet download speed is 2.16 Mb/s the highest rating is South Korea at 32.3 Mb/s for the download speed and we are paying LIME $63.00 CI$ not even US$ for the 2 Mb/s package, for pure low grade garbage service, and as for the smartphone service we are in the dark ages with that why don’t we have 3G and 4G yet we buy enough BB’s and other smartphone’s at ungodly prices to choke a chicken and still EDGE in this day and age, we all need to start demanding more and better from the companies and the government in these islands.
Thank you
NHB
What of 3G, or WiMAX (4G)!! ?? That would be really exciting news, and very benefiting to mobile internet users.
We are in 2010, and still our only only option is the slow outdated EDGE service for mobile phones internet experience (both C&W, and Digicel provide 3G in other market places).
Stop keeping the islands in the "dark ages", and implement 3G, or 4G networks that we can enjoy the same mobile experience most countries the world over.
Of course they don’t make enough PROFITS (or, we are not important enough) for this infrastructure upgrade!
What’s the catch?
And may I add that the service hasnot just had ‘glitches’ over the past few weeks, but far longer than that. Anyway I am happy that they are now giving us text messages. People text alot more than using the full 6000 minutes.
Is this why LIME has increased its prices as per the announcement in a local paper last week? Good timing.
I just paid to upgrade my LIME internet connection from to the supposed new 8MBps connection. The result? My connection speeds dropped to 0.5MBps.
I wonder what will happen when I ask for a refund for the extra money I am paying for nothing?
The fastest speed available is listed as 6Mbps on the LIME web site. How is it that you paid to upgrade to a speed that isn’t even offered? I know that they are testing 8Mbps service, but it certainly is NOT available at this time as an upgrade that you can pay for. Are you SURE that you are telling the truth?
Actually, on LIME’s Cayman website the maximum broadband speed you can get is 4mbps and that comes in at a disgraceful CI$105
http://www.time4lime.com/ky/personal/internet/plans.jsp
The highest speed on the business DSL plan is 6Mbps. There is also a 4Mbps and a 3Mbps option.
Actually they sorted it pretty quickly and the staff were great – I was in a bad mood!
Sorry guys.
I was just scarred by a terrible recent experience of rude customer service in your GT office where the women behind the main counter took the concept of "jobsworth" to new levels. Pleased remember one bad experiences colours everything else.
PS The current speed of my connection is 6.7MB.
What the heck am I gonna do with 2500 texts. Cheating CandW now LIME strikes again!!
Absolutely agree. It’s typlical ‘spin talk’ . If they really cared about the text issue they could make a plan for all those people that need 2500 texts a month (I’m sure there are thousands, if not millions of people on the Island that would benefit from that plan).
What they’ve really done is CUT MY MINUTES BY 75%!!! and either think I am as stupid as them, or they just don’t have the cohones to come out and say "WE’RE CUTTING THE VALUE OF YOUR PLAN BY 75%"…. of course to make it better for me, their loyal customer they care so much about. I swear….
Actually, if they had cut your plan by 75% you’d only be getting 1500 minutes. Better check your maths. It’s actually 58.33% of your minutes that you’ve lost. 6000 minutes a month represents approximately 3.33 hours per day on the phone, every day of the month. Who the heck talks on the phone that much?
so what if the person had wrong calculations, the cut is still a significant amount. Tell me, do you think its fair that companies cut the amount of service they offer and charge the same price?????
And You’d better check which plan I’m on mr maths. Oh here it is.. ‘prepaid’. and what do you know, I had 6000 minutes and now I have 1500.
as for who talks on the phone that much, the object is to stay under the 6000 mr maths. If you have a business, you can approach that number. I’m sure I’ll have no problem going over the 1500 minutes. I know that will make lime sad because they only want for my good.
Ha ha ha! Who talks for 3 1/2 hours per day? It’s obvious you don’t have teenagers!
I agree. Only teenagers have time to text 2500 texts. I use my 6000 minutes and more.
Mr Ritch we are begging you to please get back our Caymanian telephone operators. It is most frustrating when operators cant understand us, cant spell, and give us wrong numbers with an attitude. Can you imagine whrn it is a Tourist calling. There is no wonder that our Tourism is gone down, every little thing adds up.
Cayman tourism down because LIME has its directory enquiries answered in Jamaica? Give me a break. What next!
Just need to sort out the blackberry service now, it is absolute dogpoo. $45 bucks a month and it barely works for 10 minutes a day. I changed to digicel a couple of weeks ago and so far so good.reliability is up to about 80%
What do you expect from a LIME. "BLUEBERRIES"?????????
The name says it all. I dont know what they could be hiding under that name.
I liked it as Cable & Wireless better.