The increase in rates comes as a result of a revised price cap plan issued by the OUR on January 16, 2004 and the company’s continuing efforts to rebalance its rates.

The changes will see monthly rental on business exchange lines (including PBX trunk lines, national and international toll free lines, and direct inward dialing lines) moving to $1250.00. Residential customers on the Standard plan will pay $500.00 a month while customers on the Low User Plan will pay $340.00 per month for their line rental.

For business customers and residential customers on the Standard package, the full and off-peak Inter-parish rates remain the same, but the weekend rate will be increased to $1.00 per minute. The full rate for Intra-parish calls will be 60 cents per minute, an increase of eight cents, while the weekend rate will move to 46 cents per minute. The off-peak rate remains unchanged.

Domestic call rates for residential customers on the Low User Package remain unchanged.

Call Waiting rental will move to $54.00 and $30.00 per month for business and residential customers respectively.

Other rate adjustments include private or ex-directory listing which will now cost $200.00 per month; national directory enquiries originating from fixed lines which will now cost $15.00 per call, and international telex rates to all destinations which will move to $150.00 per minute.

At the same time, the rate for international direct dialed calls from fixed lines is to be reduced by another 5 per cent, to $15.75 per minute. The new rate will be applicable for calls to all countries with the exception of Cuba. Calls to Cuba will continue to be billed at the rate of $66.00 per minute. These calls are billed on a per second basis.

Operator assisted international calls to all destinations except Cuba have also been reduced. These calls will now cost $47.25 for the first three minutes or part thereof and $15.75 for each additional minute. The $20.00 surcharge on Operator-Assisted Collect and Time and Charge calls remains unchanged.