Digicel poised to sell 20,000 Mobile Devices in June 2014 - GOJ's CET removal means JA$4000 to JA$6000 smartphones are Possible

Folks, get ready as Summer 2014 start on Tuesday July 1^st 2014. Basically it means smartphones at both Digicel and LIME Stores will be as cheap as JA$4000! Queue the Song Everything is Awesome from The Lego Movie (2014)!

Exactly as I’d predicted in my blog article entitled “Council of Trade and Economic Development allows GOJ to remove CET on smartphones - How CET removal from Phablets is the Perfect Storm for CET-Free Tablets by Emancipation Day”, Telecom Provider Digicel is also going to drop the price of their Mobile handsets.

This as they’ve projected sales of 20,000 new Mobile Devices during the Month of June 2014, with prices falling to as low as JA$4000 to JA$6000 as stated in “Digicel projects sale of 20,000 smartphones during June”, published Friday, May 30, 2014 3:56 PM, The Jamaica Observer. All thanks to the GOJ (Government of Jamaica) removing the 20% CET (Common External Tariff) on smartphones come Tuesday July 1^st 2014!

I suspect they’re really talking about the DL600 and DL700, which currently costs about JA$10,950 Prepaid and JA$8,760 Postpaid as reported in my blog article entitled “Digicel has launched the DL700, an upgrade to the DL600 on Friday December 6th 2013 - The Alcatel One Touch Pop C3 is Digicel’s latest Unicorn that may be harder to catch”.

Telecom Provider Digicel is seeking to make a killing from Data Services with the rollout of 4G LTE before WhatsApp steals their International Calling Revenue as concluded in my blog article entitled “Digicel to invest US$85 million in 4G LTE Network - 25% of Total revenue from ICT as 4G LTE Investments designed to weather the coming Summer WhatsApp Storm”.

It still remains to be seen, however, how they plan to market 4G LTE to Jamaicans when there is no clear understanding that it’s significantly faster than “4G” Mobile and “4G” Broadband, which really 3G and WiMaX respectively. Cheaper Mobile Devices, hopefully including smartphones and Modems for their “4G” Mobile and “4G” Broadband, are a welcome start!