The announcement was made yesterday by C&W president and CEO Rodney Davis, in St. Andrew.

"This is an exciting event because it will mark the start of a new era for the fixed line customer of Cable and Wireless Jamaica in the very near future," said Mr. Davis.

With the new calling rates, the different charges for intra and inter parishes will be eliminated and replaced with only two time bands.

One band would be peak, from Mondays at 6:00 a.m. to Fridays at 5:59 p.m. The other band would be off-peak, from 6:00 p.m. to 5:59 a.m. Mondays to Fridays, as well as Fridays at 6:00 p.m. to Monday at 5:59 a.m.

PEAK RATES

The peak rate will be 90 cents per minute, while the off-peak rate will be 60 cents per minute.

All customers will continue to enjoy 60 minutes of free off-peak calling each month.

With the introduction of the single national rate, customers would no longer need to place the digit '1' before numbers being called outside the parish.

Mr. Davis told reporters that the move to the single national rate would provide a platform for several innovations in the fixed line business which the company is expected to announce shortly.

"We have been listening to our fixed line customers and the move to a simplified pricing structure for local calls is just the first of the responses we will be making to the suggestions they have made," he said.

Mr. Davis emphasised that fixed line to fixed line was still the cheapest way to talk and claimed that C&W charged some of the lowest rates worldwide for domestic calls.

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