Flow (brand)
This article contains content that is written like an advertisement. (January 2019) |
TV, Landline, Mobile telephony | |
Website | www |
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Flow is a
Following the acquisition of Columbus by CWC, it was announced that the Flow brand would replace the Lime brand across the merged company, beginning in July 2015.[5]
Wireless
2G
Every region in which Flow operates a mobile network descended from the former
3G and '4G' HSPA+
On June 22, 2009, Flow launched their first 3G networks in Jamaica.[9]
On October 6, 2011,
In Jamaica, Flow's largest market, the network covers around 2.8 million people and according to the Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR).[16]
4G
Flow operates LTE networks in 12 markets.[17]
Cayman Islands
'Project Marlin' also involved the launch and build out of LTE networks across several of the company's markets. CWC's Caymanian business unit (then named LIME Cayman) launched their first LTE network on December 10, 2013.[18] The network initially launched with 100% coverage across the Cayman Islands on LTE Band 17 (700 MHz).[19] CWC's network was followed by Digicel launching an LTE network on Band 3 (1800 MHz).[19]
In August 2016, Flow became one of eight carriers in North America and the first Caribbean operator to have rolled out an LTE Advanced network, followed by Orange in the French West Indies and the Dominican Republic.[20]
Antigua and Barbuda
Flow also operates an LTE network in Antigua and Barbuda, which launched on November 24, 2014.
Turks and Caicos Islands and Anguilla
Flow operates an LTE network in the
British Virgin Islands
Flow launched an LTE network in the British Virgin Islands on November 17, 2016. The network launched with LTE coverage available across all of the islands, LTE Advanced is available in Road Town, Spanish Town, Tortola, Spanish Island and Beef Island with speeds up to 100 Mbit/s.[24]
Jamaica
The network's plans for LTE upgrades were officially announced on January 17, 2016, where the company announced in a press release that it would be rolling out an LTE network in Jamaica. The network was initially planned to be rolled out in the high traffic areas in the
On August 20, 2017, the company announced that it was launching an additional 144 LTE sites covering Montego Bay, Ocho Rios and Mandeville by October 2017, making Flow the operator with the largest LTE footprint in the country.[27] Flow also expanded coverage in the Kingston Metro Area, upgrading sites in the township of Portmore and the major town of Spanish Town, which went on-air in October 2017. This effort was a part of a near 200 LTE site rollout across the island, availing the major towns and cities in Jamaica with LTE coverage by the end of 2017, with the goal of achieving comprehensive coverage by 2018.[28]
In January 2018, the network announced that it had deployed over 170 LTE sites across the island.[citation needed] Flow's rollout of LTE Advanced in Jamaica continued with intentions to extend LTE coverage to 87% of the Jamaican population by the end of 2018 with a future target of covering 95% of the population by 2020.[29]
In January 2023, Flow rolled out Voice over LTE (VoLTE) on its network.[30]
Barbados
After conducting its first test call in October 2016, Flow Barbados officially launched its LTE network on March 22, 2017. At the time of launch, the network had a total of 35 active sites dispersed over Band 2 and 5 LTE (1900 MHz and 850 MHz respectively), making this Flow's third LTE Advanced network deployment.[31]
St. Lucia
Flow launched St. Lucia's first LTE network, with availability in the capital city,
The network is available on LTE Band 13 (700 MHz) with a maximum theoretical speed of 75 Mbit/s down and 25 Mbit/s up.
Saint Kitts and Nevis
On September 29, 2017, Flow launched Saint Kitts and Nevis' first LTE network, with availability in the capital city,
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
In December 2018, Flow launched its LTE network in
Future footprint expansion
Flow currently operates in two markets with no wireless offerings,
Plans for a mobile network in Curaçao came to the fore when Cable & Wireless Communications acquired UTS Curaçao and other UTS business units across the Dutch Caribbean. The Curaçao business unit of UTS will be combined with Flow's existing operations there with the promise of bringing faster LTE speeds and coverage with an improved customer experience.[34]
5G
This section needs to be updated.(August 2021) |
On July 17, 2017, Flow's parent company, Cable & Wireless Communications, in collaboration with their parent, Liberty Global, announced that they had conducted a trial of
Mobile benchmarks and awards
Based on drive tests carried out by engineering consulting company, MSI Americas, Flow was rated as the top carrier in the two tested countries; Jamaica and Barbados. In Jamaica, Flow was placed ahead of its competitor in terms of radio frequency quality, 3G throughput, and higher 3G retention. Flow was also rated the faster mobile network in the country, with users to experience on average, above 3 Mbit/s (
In addition, Flow Barbados was also ranked by
In 2016, P3 Group, a management consultancy headquartered in Aachen, Germany, conducted benchmarks in six Flow Territories (Antigua & Barbuda, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica (pre-LTE), Montserrat, St. Lucia and Turks and Caicos). The finding of these benchmarks concluded that Flow networks were on average 90% better than their competitor, Digicel, in terms of call setup, download and upload speed, latency and video streaming (over YouTube). Raw scores showed that Flow also outranked the competition in voice and data performance at the very least, twice.[40]
In Q2-Q3 of 2018, Flow Jamaica received the distinction by Ookla's
Radio frequency summary
Frequency range | Band number | Protocol | Class | Status | Note(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2100 MHz IMT | 1 | HSPA+ |
3G | Active | Active in Curaçao |
1900 MHz PCS | 2 | HSPA+/LTE |
2G/3G/4G | Active | Active in all markets. In their Jamaican market, Flow has HSPA+ active on 1900 MHz. Most areas see a maximum speed of 21 Mbit/s. Band 2 LTE is used by Flow BVI, Flow Barbados, Flow Cayman, Flow Jamaica and Flow Dominica. GSM 1900 forms fallback in lack of 3G or '4G' coverage in some markets; decommissioned to allow for wider channel bandwidths on LTE Band 2. |
1800 MHz DCS | 3 | EDGE/LTE |
2G/4G | Active | Active in Barbados, Bonaire and Curaçao |
1700/2100 MHz AWS | 4 | LTE/LTE-A | 4G | Active/In-Deployment | Main LTE Band used for Flow Antigua & Barbuda and Flow Jamaica. Flow Jamaica uses Wideband LTE Band 4 in Jamaica, at 20 MHz of channel bandwidth. |
850 MHz CLR | 5 | HSPA+/LTE |
2G/3G/4G | Active | Active in all markets; 5 MHz of HSPA+ active in most. Max Speed of 21 Mbit/s. GSM-850 and UMTS-850 forms fallback in lack of 4G/LTE coverage. Band 5 LTE is used by Flow Barbados. |
700 MHz SMH A/B/C | 12/13/17 | LTE/LTE-A | 4G | Active/In-Deployment | Main LTE Band for FLOW Cayman, FLOW Anguilla, Flow Turks and Caicos, Flow St. Lucia, Flow SVG and Flow St. Kitts and Nevis and Flow British Virgin Islands . Band 12 is used to underlie Flow Jamaica's LTE network.
|
700 MHz APT | 28 | LTE/LTE-A | 4G | Active/In-Deployment | Used in Curaçao |
Broadband, pay-TV and landline
Cable TV, HFC and broadband
Flow operates HFC networks in the former Columbus Communications markets of Barbados, Curaçao, Grenada, Jamaica, Trinidad, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent. The network also follows conventions shared with its sister companies such as Virgin Media Ireland & UK, Ziggo, UPC in its choice of CPE; a custom Arris cable modem, capable of speeds up to 1 Gbit/s. The box's nomenclature 'FLOW Connectbox' also finds similarity with its sister brands like Ziggo, with Virgin Media being the only exception with its 'Superhub 3'. The company switched to using a DOCSIS 3.1 Sagemcom F@st 3890 v3 following Liberty Latin America's other markets in the region.[42] DOCSIS 3.1 was rolled out in Trinidad in August 2023.[43]
Fibre and wireless broadband
LIME, in 2014, began rolling out a
References
- ^ brands, Liberty Latin America
- ^ "Flow to deliver more connections and faster speeds". FLOW Bonaire. FLOW Bonaire. Archived from the original on 4 June 2021. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
- ^ "The New Flow to deliver more connections and faster speeds". Saint Martin News Network. Saint Martin News Network. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
- ^ brands, Liberty Latin America
- ^ "'LIME' brand to be replaced by 'Flow'". CNS Business. 7 May 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
- ^ "Flow Jamaica 2G shutdown underway". TeleGeography. 2022-08-05. Retrieved 2022-08-05.
- ^ "Shutdown of Flow 2G Network". FLOW Jamaica. 2022-08-09. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
- ^ "Flow (SVG) announces plans to shutter 2G network". TeleGeography. 2022-08-21. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
- ^ "LIME 3G hits the market - Roll-out starts in the capital, islandwide coverage to be phased in". The Jamaica Gleaner. 24 June 2009. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
- ^ LIME LAUNCHES 4G SERVICES
- ^ "LIME opens '4G' experience centres". Jamaica Observer. 9 March 2012. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
- ^ News, Alliance (2014-01-06). "Cable & Wireless' New CEO Phil Bentley Commenced Role On Jan. 1". MorningstarUK. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
{{cite web}}
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has generic name (help) - ^ Mance, Henry (21 May 2014). "CWC plans to fire up telecoms networks with $250m investment". Financial Times. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
- ^ Beckles, Natasha (23 May 2014). "Cable & Wireless reveals new strategy". www.nationnews.com. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
- ^ LIME flips on 4G within 2 weeks
- ^ "Flow celebrates hitting one million customers". Jamaica Observer. 19 May 2016. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
- ^ "Cable & Wireless Communications | On the go". www.cwc.com. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
- ^ "Lime launches LTE network in Cayman Islands". Telecompaper. 10 December 2013.
- ^ a b "LIME launches LTE in Cayman Islands". Comms Update. 11 December 2013. Retrieved 2020-09-11.
- ^ "Cable & Wireless Communications | Cable & Wireless Reports Preliminary Q1 2016/17 Results". Cable & Wireless Communications. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
- ^ "LIME zest at launch of mobile 4G LTE in Antigua and Barbuda". Comms Update. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
- ^ "Ericsson, CWC demo gigabit LTE in Antigua and Barbuda". Telecompaper. 21 August 2017.
- ^ Reichert, Corinne. "Ericsson and T-Mobile attain gigabit LTE". ZDNet. Retrieved 2020-09-11.
- ^ "Flow: LTE Cell Sites Test Shows Speed More Than 40Mbps". 15 October 2016. Archived from the original on 18 October 2016.
- ^ "FLOW announces upgrade to LTE". Jamaica Observer. 17 January 2016. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
- ^ "FLOW Jamaica applies for LTE spectrum for high speed Internet". Jamaica Gleaner. 2016-07-27. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
- ^ "FLOW to Pump $83m to Improve Services". Nationwide 90FM. 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
- ^ "FLOW Jamaica to spend $10b on service upgrades". Jamaica Gleaner. 2017-08-20. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
- ^ "Flow Jamaica unveils LTE expansion targets". Comms Update. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
- ^ "Volte Faq's". FLOW Jamaica. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
- ^ "Flow launches 4G LTE". Nation News. 24 March 2017. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
- ^ "SKNVibes | FLOW launches new LTE Service in St. Kitts and Nevis". SKN Vibes. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
- ^ Nero, Sean. "Flow urges TATT: Name third mobile provider". Guardian. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
- ^ "C&W expands capabilities in Dutch Caribbean through combination with UTS | UTS N.V." UTS. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
- ^ "Cable & Wireless Communications | C&W COMMUNICATIONS IN THE VANGUARD OF PRE-5G TESTING IN THE CARIBBEAN". Cable & Wireless Communications. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
- ^ "FLOW says it tops competitor in islandwide mobile benchmarking tests". Jamaica Observer. February 9, 2016. Retrieved February 9, 2016.
- ^ "Not so fast says FLOW". Barbados Today. January 27, 2016. Retrieved February 9, 2016.
- ^ "Flow Is Barbados' Fastest Telecoms Provider, Says Ookla". Cable and Wireless Communications. April 7, 2016. Retrieved April 17, 2016.
- ^ "Fastest ISPs and Mobile Networks | Speedtest Awards". Speedtest. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
- ^ "Flow Caribbean Customers Are On The #1 Network Independent P3 Benchmark Quality Tests in Six Markets Reveal". CNS Business. 2017-06-01. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
- ^ "Fastest Mobile Network - Flow". Ookla. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
- ^ "Liberty Modem". News is My Business. 2023-04-18. Retrieved 2023-12-03.
- ^ Sharma, Shweta (2023-08-21). "Flow offers gigabit speeds to customers - Trinidad and Tobago Newsday". newsday.co.tt. Retrieved 2023-12-03.
- ^ "C&W (Flow) aiming for 100% FTTH coverage as part of USD160m plan". Comms Update. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
- ^ "LIME Jamaica launches 100Mbps FTTH service". Comms Update. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
- ^ "Fruits of LIME investment evident; 100Mbps fibre goes nationwide". Comms Update. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
- ^ "Flow announces availability of services in Tobago". Tech News TT. Retrieved 29 January 2023.