KINGSTON, Jamaica — LIME says it added nearly 140,000 new prepaid mobile subscribers in Jamaica over the 100 days after launching its flat rate of $2.99 per minute for all prepaid calls to domestic and select international numbers, billed per second.

“Simply put, many more Jamaicans are using LIME mobile,” stated LIME CEO, Garfield Sinclair, during a live webcast on Monday.

“These numbers vindicate our aggressive marketing strategy which has been consistently clear, simple and credible. When we match that with the tremendous savings customers experience having made the switch to LIME, we emerge as the undeniable mobile value provider,” he said.

LIME introduced the $2.99 flat rate shortly after the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) moved the Interim Mobile Termination Rate (MTR) from $9 to $5 per minute in June 2012. LIME rival Digicel hit back by increasing the number of free minutes, extra credit and text messages it gives customers with six new plans.

What’s more, according to LIME in a press release this week, demand for fixed line telephone service is “on the rebound”. The announcement came less than a week after Digicel made its entrance into the market long dominated by LIME.

With its fixed line product, DigiHome, Digicel boldly seeks to replicate the success it has enjoyed in the mobile phone business the last 13 years. Digicel CEO, Barry O’Brien said the firm aims to provide “better options” for consumers who want to have a phone at home.

But LIME claims that its landline demand is on the rise, reporting that a steady increase in the demand for home Internet service since July of this year as the main reason for the higher consumer uptake of fixed line service.

LIME’s Head of Product Performance, Dwight Williams, said Jamaicans have been responding positively to the company’s ‘Browse and Talk’ package which includes Internet service, local and international call minutes rolled into one simple value starting at $2,500 per month (plus GCT).

Since airing a steady rotation of engaging advertisements, television and radio commercials in July to remind consumers about the product, demand for installations jumped by 100 per cent compared to prior months, Williams said.

“Part of our mission is to increase Jamaica’s Internet penetrate rate from sub 20 per cent levels to that of First World countries in the shortest possible time. This spike in demand for our ‘Browse and Talk’ package is helping us to get there while delivering the best value to consumers along the way,” Williams stated.