THIS week, telecoms service provider Flow celebrates its fifth anniversary in Jamaica. During that time, Flow has managed to redefine the way Jamaicans employ digital broadband technology. The company has introduced high speed Internet and delivered cable television packages that to date can not be equalled.
Back in 2004, just after Hurricane Ivan, lead principals of Flow's parent company, Columbus Communications, Brendan Paddick and Michael Lee Chin flew into Jamaica to evaluate investing in the country. They were confronted by uprooted infrastructure, chaos and devastation. They made their way to Gordon House to inform then Minister of Commerce and Technology Philip Paulwell that they wanted to build a triple-play fibre optic network and the first objective was to lay a subsea link offshore Jamaica that would hook into a greater subsea network that services the Caribbean. They vowed that never again would Jamaica's telecommunications capabilities be incapacitated in such a manner.
They proceeded to put together an RFP that would have people bid on building that subsea network off the island. Two licenses were awarded and the network was delivered expeditiously, in fact, in less than 12 months and was in service in March 2006. In April of that year, Flow had its official launch.
Building a network
It started offering its services to just around 25 customers in the New Kingston area. When Michele English, who is now the President and Chief Operating Officer of Flow, arrived in Jamaica, in April 2006 she was the 92nd employee. By then, many construction professionals were engaged in building the network. Initially she was the general manager and was mandated to build a new business with less than a hundred employees. Today Flow has 550 employees comprising specialised expertise.
English points to the number of returning residents who have joined Flow, lending it their considerable expertise garnered from First World telecoms companies like Comcast, Time Warner and Rogers. She adds that many of these overseas professionals were impressed with what Flow was attempting to accomplish and got on board.
Carlton Baxter returned to Jamaica to visit his mother back in 2006. He recognised the infrastructure going up around Kingston and was curious. He went to visit Flow's offices, knocked on Michele English's door and told her he was an engineer with Comcast and was impressed with what he saw in Jamaica. He expressed an interest in returning home and started with Flow as a design manager. Today he is VP of Engineering at Flow responsible for its infrastructure roll out across the island.
Great efforts were made to train the local contractors. Today, English proudly proclaims they work full time for Flow and are very successful as a result of being equipped with the right tools. She credits the team of local contractors with Flow's ability to deliver a good product.
"We spent the first couple of years in construction mode and I had to do practically everything. One minute I was recruiting customer service representatives, the next, designing the products and coming up with how we were going to sell them. Then hub sites had to be built. There was a phenomenal amount of activity in those first couple of years, but five years on that hasn't really stopped but is now more focused on operational practices.
"We delivered to our first residential customers in the summer of 2006. Back then we only had a licence to deliver Internet and voice services both locally and internationally. We did apply for a cable license but we began with a double-play offering," recalls Flow's chief operating officer.
Delivering a stellar service
This goes some way in explaining why Flow went into acquisition mode, snapping up cable operators aggressively. The first company Flow acquired was Sauce in the Kingston area thus allowing it to offer a triple-play service (Internet, voice and cable). Flow had arrived, and the question was could it manage expectations?
Today Flow has about 5000 kilometres of fibre in its network, then another 4000 kilometres of cable, a 1000 kilometres of subsea cable and a dozen hub sites built. When Flow first got started it could only deliver its service to 10,000 homes. Five years later it can deliver to 50 per cent of the homes in the country and almost 100 per cent of all businesses operating in Jamaica in terms of an enterprise level fibre service.
Full Article: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business/VIDEO--Flow-celebrates-fifth-anniversary-in-Jamaica---Part-I_9272577#ixzz1T8PASPXw
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