Flow to invest another J$30b in five years
Published:Friday | February 3, 2012 | 12:00 AM
Steven Jackson, Business Reporter
Flow Jamaica plans to invest US$350 million (J$30b) over the next five years to provide new services of which roughly 10 per cent would be expended this year, the telecom provider said.
The five-year investment upon completion would double its initial spend in the country and deepen the telecom's reach and scope. Its spend this year, at some US$40 million (J$3.4b), would represent a slight increase over year-earlier levels, according to Flow Jamaica's public relations manager Jeanette Lewis.
Most of the spend would entail financing new projects and infrastructure with "less than 10 per cent spend on maintenance capex", Lewis said in writing to the Financial Gleaner.
Flow's investment would allow it to triple its Internet service to customers at 300 Mbps or 5,000 times faster than dial-up; offer mobile Internet or TV Everywhere; and video recording in the clouds, allowing browsers to view Internet sites such as Facebook and YouTube on their TV sets, branded Cloud PVR.
Flow Jamaica said at its 5th anniversary celebration last July that it planned to launch four products including three-dimensional or 3D television as early as 2012. This movie format regained popularity since the late-2009 release of the 3D blockbuster Avatar.
Flow's fibre optic ring currently delivers fibre-based commercial services to upwards of 90 per cent of all businesses, and approximately 50 per cent of homes in the country, the company said.
Lewis explained that on average, Flow has spent US$50 million per year over since its launch, excluding 2005-06 and 2008, which experienced higher than normal spends due to build-out of the sub-sea links.
"Average on-island capital spend is US$35 million to US$40 million per year. We expect to continue at this rate of capital spend over the next five years as we complete the build-out of our network and introduce new products and services," said Lewis.
"In addition to those mentioned above, the products and services include a suite of business services through Columbus Business Solutions, the business arm of Flow, such as video conferencing, IP surveillance, business continuity and disaster recovery solutions, and solutions to facilitate tele-health and tele-education initiatives," the PR manager said.
Flow has already invested US$350 million building two off-island fibre links and a fibre-optic backbone that spans the country. These links provide diverse routing for communications traffic while offering redundancy to ensure continuity of service.
"It is expected that we will double that investment over the next five years in finishing the build and in delivering new and innovative products," she said.
Flow Jamaica's parent Colombus Communications owns a series of regional fibre-optic cables and networks. The company spans 22 territories and has US$1.3 billion in assets, according to information on its website.