FLOW Jamaica is racing to complete its transition to a 100 per cent fibre network by the end of 2025, while simultaneously rebuilding from Hurricane Beryl’s devastation and injecting more resilience in its network, as it positions its infrastructure for future technologies like 5G.

Stephen Price, general manager of Cable and Wireless Jamaica which trades in the consumer market as Flow Jamaica, told the
Jamaica Observer that the company is in the final stages of replacing its copper-based infrastructure, with plans to complete a nationwide fibre network by December and promises of faster speeds, enhanced reliability, and significant environmental benefits.

Price said the company already has its fibre network passing “around 761,000 homes” across the Jamaica.

“We have another, let’s say, 20,000 homes on the copper network that we need to overbuild and then we’ll be complete. We will then become a full 100 per cent fibre network,” Price told Business Observer.

The shift to fibre delivers multiple advantages beyond speed, including greater reliability and reduced power consumption.

“It reduces the dependence on power quite a bit, giving the company a greener footprint… so having the ability to really shut these down across the island will save us a significant amount on power in terms of bringing our consumption down by upwards of 30 per cent to 35 per cent,” Price said without elaborating on the dollar amount in terms of savings. Currently, Flow purchases most of its electricity from Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), though it has begun incorporating renewable energy across its network.

“Currently, we only have about maybe 200 mobile sites which are powered by solar in terms of that green energy mix that we are using,” Price noted.

One driver behind Flow’s aggressive fibre roll-out is the persistent problem of copper theft which has plagued telecommunications infrastructure across Jamaica. Price revealed that the company has dealt with “upwards of 12 or 15 incidents” since the start of the year, “including the major one that hurt our telecoms partner, Digicel”, Price said. The problem has become so severe that Flow and Digicel issued a joint statement calling for greater intervention from the Government and law enforcement agencies.

Price explained that copper thieves often cause collateral damage that extends beyond the targeted materials: “If they could go in and take the copper, that’s one thing, but they’re going in and just cutting everything… They’re cutting the fibre as well.” He said Flow itself has been harvesting the copper.

Hurricane Recovery and Network Resilience

Hurricane Beryl, which struck Jamaica in 2024, caused significant damage to Flow’s infrastructure, particularly in St Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Clarendon, and Manchester. The company lost approximately 20,000 fixed-line customers and faced recovery costs of about US$9 million. In recovering, Price said rather than simply restoring damaged copper lines, Flow accelerated its fibre deployment in affected areas.

“What we had to do in the process was, where we had copper we decided that we weren’t going to rebuild the copper so what we did, we continued the process of just overbuilding in terms of making sure that fibre was there. But that’s been the process that we employed,” Price explained.

He said though the company has fully restored services to all areas impacted, the hurricane revealed vulnerabilities in mobile sites — primarily related to power rather than structural damage.

“The mobile network largely, as you recall, stood up for the entire hurricane. The only challenges that we had was, obviously, power — from that perspective — because not all sites particularly were fitted with generator capacity. But we also had the ones with power challenges where we either suffered from theft and vandalism because generators were stolen, which really impacted us particularly for this hurricane period,” said Price.

In response to these challenges Flow substantially increased its capital expenditure. Price said the capital outlay for 2024 was US$59 million but around US$80 million was spent instead, with the extra sums going to both restoration and resilience in the network to mitigate against the kind of losses Flow suffered last year. For 2025 the company projects capital expenditure of approximately US$50 million to continue that work.

“I think, from the perspective of one of the major things that we are undertaking this year, is we’re moving one of the major arterial routes from May Pen to St James all underground — and that work has started in earnest and we’re trying to finish that quite quickly before the hurricane season,” Price said.

However, burying all aerial lines remains cost-prohibitive. Price pointed out that it would cost “in some instances, over US$1,200 per home to do that kind of transition”.

But Price said with Flow now in the process of acquiring a license for a 600 MHz spectrum from the Spectrum Management Authority (SMA), it will be expanding its mobile network capacity and improving data services.

“We’ll add some additional sites this year — which will probably be the most significant investment that we’ve made in mobile in the past four years — to make sure that we continue to improve,” Price said. The company currently reaches 97.5 per cent of Jamaica’s population with its mobile service and has obligations under the spectrum award to expand coverage into previously unserved areas.

The 600 MHz spectrum is particularly valuable for its propagation characteristics, allowing wider coverage from fewer cell sites than those on the higher-band spectrum.

Eyeing Growth

The roll-out of the 600 MHz spectrum coincides with Flow stepping up its drive to continue growing its customer base, not just giving them a faster network. Price indicated that the postpaid mobile market is growing in importance for Flow, driven largely by the company’s Yaad and Road fixed-mobile convergence offerings.

“In B2C, I think there’s tremendous opportunity in postpaid, but more so we’re continuing our push in terms of fixed mobile convergence. We’re using the Yaad and Road product and bringing more converged services to our customers. They don’t have to worry about multiple bills. One bill, they get all the services there for a very value-leading rate to the market,” Price stated.

B2C alludes to business-to-consumer and typically refers to Flow’s mainly mobile customers.

The approach also helps reduce customer churn by bundling services and simplifying billing. In the fourth quarter alone Flow Jamaica added 4,300 postpaid subscribers while its prepaid mobile subscriber base declined by 2,100, according to the full-year financial statements from Liberty Latin America, which is the ultimate parent company of Flow Jamaica. Currently, the consumer business accounts for two-thirds of Flow’s business while its business-to-business arm, which trades as C&W Business, accounts for the remainder.

While Flow has not yet launched 5G services in Jamaica, the company is preparing its network for eventual deployment, Price said. Liberty Latin America has already deployed 5G in several regional markets, including the Cayman Islands, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica.

Price said the Jamaican market is also exploring the deployment of 5G but is hesitant over concerns not enough customers will be able to afford the devices to use on the network to make the investment worthwhile at this time.

“Think about it, if you think about the 5G devices that are available in our market — they are the S24 and S25 and the iPhones — they are really on the high end, pricey side, and when you think about bringing these devices into the country you say to yourself, ‘I am going to pay the CIF cost, they are going to put the duties on top of that, then the Common External Tariff and then GCT.’ So you have all those increments that go into the price of a phone before it hits the market, so it makes it a very expensive proposition,” Price explained.

Another challenge for 5G deployment involves the densification of cell sites.

“One of the conversations that we are embarking on with various agencies is how do we get sidewalk sites in partnership with the municipalities, because as you go to these kind of technologies you need a lot more density in terms of sites around the country. And that’s going to be quite a challenge, because obviously you know the usual challenges that you get whenever people see sites going up in their communities,” Price noted.