File
Ambassador Courtney Walsh (left) and Cable & Wireless Jamaica president Rodney Davis (right) test the homefone product in this 2006 file photo. At centre is the company's senior vice-president for Internet voice & data, Roger Richards.

Cable & Wireless Jamaica (C&WJ) is now offering a virtual calling card, called Homefone ToGo, that will allow customers who travel the chance to make calls back home at local rates.

Calls from any landline, mobile or payphone in Jamaica, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and several Caribbean countries will have the cost automatically billed to their homefone account.

"Our customers can make calls at that same low rate when they're on the go - even if they are nowhere near their own homefone," said Xesus Johnston, C&WJ's vice-president of broadband and consumer services.

No roaming charges

The service will be available to both post- and prepaid customers.

Calls made when travelling outside Jamaica will incur no roaming charges, said the phone company.

Homefone To Go calls will be billed at the fixed-line rate of 90 cents per minute during peak hours, and 60 cents off-peak for postpaid, and $1.25 per minute peak and 99 cents off-peak for prepaid.

Calls made back to Jamaica from landlines in the United States, Canada and the U.K. will cost only $8.00 per minute - and there are no additional roaming charges.

The service will have an introductory cost of $5 per minute for calls from Jamaica to the U.K., the U.S. and Canada.

Call charges will appear on the monthly bills of postpaid customers, while prepaid subscribers will have the charges deducted from the credit on their accounts.

C&WJ's homefone service, which offers prepaid accounts to fixed-line customers, was introduced last year May.

business@gleanerjm.com