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3 May, 2021

Flow forges ahead with plans to deploy island-wide fiber connectivity

Customers to receive increased broadband speeds of over 1000Mbp/s

 

George Town, Grand Cayman, 3 May 2021: Flow has been the leader in telecommunications in the Cayman Islands for the past 54 years and is proud of its track record of continuous investment in its network. This has enabled the company to remain at the forefront of the technology curve, while keeping the Cayman Islands connected to what matters most. Flow is committed to ensuring that every Cayman home has access to a fiber connection, which will enable broadband speeds to be more than 100 times faster than currently available over traditional copper and newer wireless solutions being offered.

Last year, Flow spent KYD $5 million on network enhancements and will continue to invest in improvements that will benefit current and future customers. The current fiber footprint will initially be expanded to include all of Grand Cayman and provide a significant increase in fiber coverage in the sister islands.

In 1992, Flow rolled out fiber networks to all districts in Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac, providing connections via its cell sites and exchanges. In 2014, the Upgrade Cayman campaign was launched and brought fiber directly to residences for the very first time. Customers who live in Bodden Town, George Town, Prospect, South Sound, Rum Point and Cayman Kai already experience a fiber-to-the-home connection, which gives them access to the faster speeds and a superior download and streaming experience for content like online movies and music streaming sites. As each district is outfitted with fiber to the home, Flow will migrate those customers from the existing copper network on to the new fiber networks. The team is currently building out the fiber network in West Bay and Spotts and is anxious to expand into other districts.

Flow Country Manager, Robert Mayo-Smith commented, “We are excited to continually upgrade our network by investing not only in technology, but also in creating jobs in our community, to achieve our goal of island-wide fiber connectivity. In the first four months of the year, we have added 10 new members including local customer care agents and technicians. We will add another 15 people predominantly in our technical team and we were very encouraged by the over 200 applications received for these roles at our recently conducted career fair. We are steadfast in our commitment to roll-out fiber as quickly as possible bringing speeds of over 1000Mbp/s to our residential and business customers. We have shared this vision with CUC and are hopeful they will partner with us by granting the necessary access to build out the new fiber network as quickly as possible.”

The roll-out into new communities has also enabled the company to continue to invest in its corporate social responsibility initiatives to support the local communities that it serves. The company has been previously recognized for its work in keeping Caymanian schools connected through the provision of free broadband service to primary and secondary schools across the islands and its partnership with OfReg to provide free WiFi hotspot access at all Government Community Centers. Additionally, as part of its ongoing efforts to assist students and parents across Cayman cope with the increased demand for remote learning, Flow also provided FREE access to its online learning platform, Flow Study, for a limited period. This gave students an additional resource to access past papers, tutorials, and online classes to assist in their preparation for examinations.

“We are really excited by our plans to expand our fiber-to-the home footprint and the amazing benefits it will bring to our customers across the Cayman Islands,” says Director, B2C Commercial, Daniel Tathum. “It’s amazing to see the new opportunities that this type of first-in-class service provides for our small business and entrepreneurial sectors, as well.  We continually look for ways to boost our customers’ benefits and experience by introducing solutions and services to meet their needs. Last year, we introduced new packages that included faster broadband speeds combined with our TV entertainment line-up providing better coverage both at home and on-the-go.”