Flow Jamaica to shut down 2G network

Telecommunications provider Cable & Wireless Jamaica, which trades as Flow Jamaica, will shut down its 2G network after nearly two decades of service, a move that will impact about 30,000 customers, according to disclosures by its parent company.

“During the second quarter of 2022, we began to shut down our 2G network in Jamaica and have reflected the associated decline in mobile subscribers as a non-organic adjustment,” said Liberty Latin America in its financials released this month. Liberty Latin America operates the Flow brand across several regional regional markets.

NEW TECHNOLOGY

Flow started offering 2G services in 2004, based on previous Cable & Wireless disclosures. The technology allowed the network to move from legacy TDMA to GSM service.

The telecoms also associated the new technology with a total rebranding at the time when it was calling itself bmobile and had launched a series of underdog-type ads featuring the popular ‘Pressa’.

The advertisement was aimed at clawing back some market share from the largest operator Digicel, whose customer base is still twice that of Flow’s today at around two million.

Over the decades, Flow Jamaica has traded as Cable & Wireless, bmobile and LIME.

The customers to be affected by the mothballing of the 2G network represent a fraction of Flow Jamaica’s million customers – around three per cent.

“We expect further non-organic adjustments related to the final stages of the shutdown, which will impact as many as approximately 30,000 subscribers in the second half of 2022,” Liberty Latin America said

The company didn’t say precisely why it was retiring the 2G network.

Flow Jamaica generated US$105 million in revenue over three months ending June, rising from US$99.4 million in the comparative 2021 period.

steven.jackson@gleanerjm.com