On the very day Flow customers faced their first day with increased charges from their provider, Digicel announced that in one month, their subscribers would also face increased fees.
In a notice to customers, Digicel confirmed that rates for most of its customers would be going up, but all affected subscribers will receive increased speeds of up to 200Mbps.
The company said, “Like every company across the globe, we are dealing with the impact of substantial increases in the costs of doing business. Not to mention here in Trinidad and Tobago, internet usage has doubled when compared to pre-pandemic levels, the costs of international television content continue to rise, and over-the-top (OTT) apps are growing in popularity, increasing internet pressures and further driving up our operational costs. Additionally, given the demands for more internet, faster speeds, and greater reliability, we must also improve the network’s resilience and redundancy to help prevent outages and downtime in the event of an outage.”
The notice continued, “Since our services are only as good as the money we invest in them, we must take action to ensure that what we deliver matches up to what you expect. Therefore, it is against this background that we must implement new packages from 1 June 2023 and take this opportunity to provide 30 days advance notice, which is in line with our commitment to communicate openly with our customers.”
Digicel in the notice acknowledged it had suffered a major outage recently and also that it had raised its rate twice in the last 12 months.
While its increase last year was based on the same reasons given on Monday, it noted its February adjustment was related to “one specific plan, the variety-200, which had an additional value added beyond the increase in price.”
It explained that under the new package, its base deal would move from the Fibre 150 to the Fibre 200, and would see customers’ bill increase by $20 from $285 to $305, while its TV and internet counterpart the Modern Fibre 100, as well as the Modern Fibre 150 bundle, rise by $15 to $325 and $390 respectively.
The vast majority of the packages would see increases ranging from $15 to $60, Digicel confirmed as it clarified that an initial table depicting increases above $300, was inaccurate.
Last month, Flow announced its rates would be increasing by 3.5 per cent on May 1, due to external economic pressures.
