TALK BACK: Readers not thrilled by LIME’s expansion plans

News that telecommunications giant LIME is investing $100 million in the expansion and development of its fibre-optic network has left a bitter taste in the mouths of some our online readers.
This past week managing director Alex McDonald announced that over the next 18 months the company would install an estimated 1 000 kilometres of fibre optics in more than 70 per cent of households and businesses. He said the fibre-optic network installation started since 2007 on a small scale, adding that the renewed interest suggested confidence in the local economy.
This news was not welcomed by all.
Victor Benn: “LIME is guilty of taking the Barbadian public for granted for a very long time. Now there is competition in the market,  they have been caught unprepared and would expect us to wait around for them to catch up with the competition. I wish them well.”
Gordon Williams: “I think that this effort is coming a little too late. LIME had at least a four-year head start on the competition and squandered it. LIME kept broadband internet in Barbados in the “dark ages” for years while other Caribbean countries were moving forward. Don’t tell me that LIME didn’t know that this is what Bajans were waiting for, for a very long time, hence why thousands of individuals haven’t even given it a second thought about staying with LIME before signing up to switch to Columbus Communications (FLOW). . . .
After eye-poking Bajan’s for years as Cable and Wireless and then as LIME, they are going to have to do a lot better than follow the competition to keep their customers.”
Carl Harper: “The reason LIME placed the introduction of fibre optics on hold in 2007 was because there was no imminent threat of competition. The company was raking in record profits with outdated technologies and poor customer service, and the commencement of the global economic downturn did not justify the investment at the time. . . . Mr McDonald, just admit that the renewed interest in the fibre optics project has more to do with the entry of Karib Cable/FLOW having LIME on the run, in a similar manner that Digicel and AT&T made your company step up its game over ten years ago, and nothing to do with confidence in the local economy.”
*Readers, also check out Crop Over Central at www.nationcropover.com which will be bringing all the action of this year’s festival, including the pictures, videos, news and the fetes and fashion of the festival.
• Carol Martindale is THE NATION’S Online Editor.