Columbus Communications, the telecommunications firm which operates in Jamaica under the brand name Flow, has just about been given the nod to roll out cable television services across the island.

Last week, the local telecom chief executive officer, Richard Pardy, told Sunday Finance that Information Minister Donald Buchanan "informed me that we (Flow) will be granted the licence" that will allow them to provide subscriber television service island wide.

In March 2005, three months after the firm was granted a licence by the technology ministry to land an underwater fibre-optic cable in Jamaica, which would increase the island's broadband and telecommunications capabilities exponentially, the executives applied for the cable licence.
Since last July, Flow has been providing service to residential customers, but focused its network build-out in areas in which it could offer triple play - a combination of telephone, internet and cable television.

So far, the firm has been restricted to Kingston and select areas in St Andrew such as Beverly Hills and Mona, zones that the firm is entitled to offer cable services under the licence it took on when it acquired SAUCE Communication Network Limited in June 2006.

A few months ago, the sale of shares in D&L Cable & Satellite Network to Columbus Acquisitions Inc, a subsidiary under the Columbus Group and an affiliate of Flow, was conditionally approved, giving Flow access to cable zones located in southern St Andrew.

Now Flow will be entitled to operate in any zone having already secured permission from Jamaica Public Service Company (JPSCo) to use its light poles to carry overhead fibre-optic cable.
The firm is still negotiating with existing cable operators to grab up existing customer base rather than compete for them in order to reach its target of 100,000 households. Flow has even reached advanced stages with at least four other cable providers, although Pardy declined to comment on the status of those negotiations.

On the other hand, Flow is still being met by resistance from some of the larger cable operators, some of which have even moved ahead on a partnership with voice over internet protocol (VoIP) company Call The Planet (CTP), to deliver phone service to customers while others, such as Logic One, have begun offering high-speed internet.
Ironically, Flow will sell the bandwidth to CTP that will enable it and the cable operators to compete on triple play.