Communications and entertainment provider Flow Jamaica has made it clear that it has the wherewithal to provide island-wide mobile and broadband coverage.

Buoyed by coming out as one of the best performing market in Liberty Latin America, (its parent company), Flow Jamaica is confident in overcoming the challenges posed by Jamaica’s topography.

Our Today sat down with Flow Jamaica’s General Manager and Vice President, Stephen Price who gave an insight into how the company will connect every nook and cranny of Jamaica.

“From a topography perspective, we are a very hilly island. Our population centres while mainly found in towns and cities, are very disparate. You can go almost 10 kilometres and not see a household then come across many bunched together. In telco parlance, in terms of building out fibre there’s a general cost to “pass a home” (premises to which an operator has capability to connect in a service area, but the premises may or may not be connected to the network), say US$160 a home. In some communities depending on population density that could go up to US$1000 or more. Now looking at this, the immediate concern for any telecom player is about the return on investment, as this cost doesn’t include customer premises equipment (CPE) or connection/ truck roll costs.

“So it’s going to take a variety of initiatives, primarily technological, I would say. For our country, because of where we are from a socio-demographic level, in terms of poverty, crime, violence there are communities we have challenges getting into and servicing. There are also communities that go months without internet connectivity due to vandalism and theft,” explained Price.

It’s all very well making demands on a communication company with Flow’s capabilities but what has to be factored in here is the level of vandalism and theft it has to contend with. Flow Jamaica loses around US$2.5 million annually from stolen equipment that has to be replaced. Now that is a sum it could be re-investing in getting more people connected to the Internet.

The Flow Jamaica boss continued: “We have to include this loss in the cost of running our business. The reality is that we are huge taxpayers in Jamaica. We pay income tax, all the statutory deductions, special call taxes, taxes on international incoming calls which go to the Universal Service Fund. Now we believe the Government has a role to play in protecting foreign direct investment that comes into the country. That is why we have been calling on the Government to address this matter.

Minister Vaz has stepped up since becoming Minister and has shown a commitment to addressing this for the entire telecom industry. We have been working through successive Ministers of Science, Energy & Telecommunications, through the Ministry of Justice in terms of how we can get initiatives in place. We have done a lot in showing how pieces of legislation have to be changed but we know how protracted those processes can be.”

Does the administration get a sense of just how vital that is, bearing in mind the sheer capital expenditure Flow has to put up?

“We let them know every time. Flow is in the top five every year in terms of foreign direct investment. The government has been doing its research in terms of what has to be done to bring broadband to the entire country. Minister Vaz speaking in Parliament, has told the Finance Minister we need US$240 million to do this.

“Invariably, it’s not only about the cost of rolling out the network. The various telecom players have to also provide the customer premises equipment (CPE) to allow customers to actually access the network which is another huge cost as well. We are working to see how best we can partner. 

“I have been critical in the past about how we have been using the Universal Fund. I think the reality there is that when competition was introduced in 2001, it was geared to helping to provide universal access. We can argue whether the funds were used in that regard, but we are where we are now. We are now working closely with and supporting the National Information and Communication Technology Advisory Council (NICTAC) and National Broadband Committee to do right by Jamaica and its people.”

I believe an Emergency Broadband Benefit Programme is warranted at this time in Jamaica as exists in the US, Costa Rica and other markets. Over 700,000 homes in Jamaica have technology passing them which can provide broadband connectivity. We, however, cannot escape the fact that even with this level of availability, adoption is not where we desire it to be as a country. We know the amount of households that fall in the various groups that are covered under social safety nets like PATH etc., so we know – at a minimum – the homes that definitely will not be able to afford such services. They won’t be connected unless they are assisted. These are the homes that these programmes benefit, as well as those where the cost to pass is prohibitive.