Tricom announced last Thursday, 20 January the abolition of long-distance charges for calls made within the Dominican Republic from residential phones. Domestic long- distance calls would be billed at RD$0.95, down from an average RD$3.10 per minute, which is a considerable saving. Tricom has about 20% of market share in this area, according to a report in the Listin Diario. Tricom’s offer also includes free installation of caller ID for those signing up.
The market leader, Verizon, has not announced it would follow suit. According to Indotel statistics, as of 30 September there were 937,371 telephones in the DR, of which 631,527 are in homes and 261,492 in businesses.