Flowing fastest - Broadband changes to revolutionise Jamaica's Internet landscape
Published:Sunday | October 24, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU: Following its recent announcement of the introduction of broadband speeds of 100 megabytes per second (Mbs) to the residential market, Michele English, president and chief operating officer of Flow, recently sat with The Sunday Gleaner to clear the air about competing technologies on the market and how her company measures up.
"From the onset, Flow has been the market leader and provided the fastest Internet in Jamaica," said English.
"When we came into the market, there was no true broadband available on the island," she said.
"The infrastructure that existed was simply not enough to support the growing needs of the Jamaican consumer - the student, the young professional, the entrepreneur who like their American and European counterparts are spending more time online socialising, shopping and doing business. The infrastructure then, also did not match the demands by foreign investors such as hoteliers, call centres, financial institutions etc., who needed and who are used to fast, reliable bandwidth to conduct business," added English.
She told The Sunday Gleaner that for residential consumers, around four years ago, the only option was 528k or up to 1Mbps speeds.
"Flow came in and offered residential customers 2Mbps and 3Mbps - 100 per cent faster than what they were accustomed to. Since then, we have made it our promise to our customers to stay well ahead."
more benefits
According to Flow, the fastest technology allows for greater consumer benefits.
"It is our fibre-optic broadband infrastructure that sets us apart and keeps us ahead of the competi-tion," English explained.
"Up to very recently Flow offered up to 8 and 15Mbs, the fastest speeds on the market. This was upgraded to 12 and 20Mbs respectively, free of cost to the customer."
And two Fridays ago, English announced that Flow will offer two new Internet products to the residential market - 50Mbps and up to 100Mbs.
"We are doing this because we promised to meet the demand from our customers. Our customers have been asking for speeds up to 100Mbs and so we have delivered on our promise," she explained.
Describing Flow's infrastructure, English said: "Flow's broadband technology is like nothing experienced before, and now stacked against mobile technology such as 3G and 4G networks offered by the competitors; Flow's infrastructure is aeons ahead in terms of speed, communication applications and broadband capabilities."
According to English, broadband, that Flow offers, makes available a wider range of frequencies to transmit information.
She said it allows large amounts of multiple types of traffic (i.e. voice, video and data) to be transmitted simultaneously over the same network.
"When we think in broadband terms we are thinking, blazing speed, higher data capacity and reliability; this is the fundamental shift that we have brought to the market."
English added that Flow offers a direct connection that affords the consumer almost limitless capacity and a consistent connection.
She argued that unlike 3G and 4G networks, Flow's broadband network can accommodate the largest numbers of users all at the same time.
"With very simple adjustments, you can increase the capacity of our broadband network a hundred-fold."
The investment to bring such a network to Jamaica has been quite significant.
Flow invested an initial US$250 million on the infrastructure build out which included building a direct undersea fibre-optic connection to the United States, around the Caribbean and into South America.
Ja leading caribbean
English said this infrastructure has positioned Jamaica as the Caribbean leader in broadband connectivity and for the first time, offers broadband-enabled services such as digital cable television - offering high definition cable channels, high speed Internet and Internet-based telephony services to a mix of business and residential customers.
She argued that Flow is now providing cost effective data solutions that meet the information age requirements of a knowledge-based society.
"Simply put, more options and better ways to work learn and play. Consumers for instance can now really work from home or work remotely as Flow's broadband and new wideband technology facilitates solutions such as video conferencing, and sharing of large files without buffering or freezing," said English.
English said Flow's data capacity, speed and price also allow more consumers to engage in e-business.
The Flow president said the company's network allows students to attend classes online, spend long hours researching, watch lectures online and download large files faster and cheaper.