8 minute read
Interview - Flow St. Vincent The Grenadines
CLOSING DIGITAL DIVIDES
Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Wayne Hull, Country Manager at FLOW Saint Vincent, about technological upgrades, the challenge of coronavirus, and maintaining connectivity in the face of disaster.
By Evie Roebuck
FLOW, formerly Cable & Wireless (C&W)
Communications, has been the primary provider of telecommunications to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines for over one hundred years. FLOW delivers a range of communications services, from internet to fixed line to cable TV and mobile LTE, and is the first organization to offer this type of all-in-one service in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. “We have a rich history here,” explains Wayne Hull, Country Manager for FLOW Saint Vincent. “We’re very close to the community due to a number of initiatives over the years and what we continue to do for the country. Now we’re moving to upgrade our services in Saint Vincent and Grenadines every day.”
RECENT UPGRADES
Before FLOW made upgrades to the region’s internet infrastructure, the technology used was based on microwave technology from the 1980s. “It does not have the same capacity to meet the current needs of users here, especially compared to the high-speed connectivity that you get in any city, across the world,” says Mr. Hull. “It would have impacted the ability to develop e-commerce, even affecting how many people were able to get internet into their homes. In that era, we had maxed out on the capacity, and we had to stop selling the service, so it didn’t deteriorate for everyone. Now, the upgrades have closed that digital divide in the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines for homes that were not connected to the internet previously.”
An example is the complete removal of broadband delivery on legacy copper networks, transferring to FLOW’s Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) services. “Our minimum speeds went from just under 5MB/s download to over 50MB/s minimum, which is 10 times the speed for the country,” states Mr. Hull. “That’s now the predominant service used in the country to deliver internet services.”
DECADE-LONG PROBLEM
Moreover, FLOW carried out a major upgrade to the network in the small islands that make up the Grenadines, retiring their legacy microwave system in favor of new services with subsea fiber connection. “What that allowed us to do was upgrade customers in that region from an average speed of just 2MB/s download, to speeds at a minimum of 50MB/s, as is available on the mainland,” explains Mr. Hull. “This allowed more homes to be connected to the internet and meant we were able to upgrade our cable TV services in those islands and, in some parts of the region, to restart and rebuild our network. That was a decade long problem in the Grenadines. We were able to upgrade our own network there to bring those customers, and that part of the
country, into the first world and, especially now, where things like remote walk-ins are critical in these pandemic times, it came in as a significant milestone.”
“It has always been a vision for us to have that cable in place,” says Mr. Hull. “But we had to do it in partnership with the government and other operators to make it feasible because of the geographic size of the islands. The project to fix it took just over two years.”
The hospitality and tourism industries in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have benefited from FLOW’s developments. “Guest experiences at the various hotels, villas, and private islands have been enhanced with improvements to our tourism products, ensuring that our visitors can now access home if they need to and work remotely on those islands as seamlessly as possible,” says Mr. Hull.
MAINTAINING CONNECTIVITY
Saint Vincent’s volcano, La Soufrière, had been in a state of effusive eruption since December 27th 2020, erupting explosively on April 9th 2021, resulting in many residential evacuations. “In terms of FLOW, 90% of our network remained active during the entire volcanic eruption,” says Mr. Hull. “So our citizens were able to maintain connectivity throughout the event. As well as this, we have been cooperating in social activities by partnering with charitable foundations to deliver much-needed water.”
Overall FLOW contributed close to 500,000 EC dollars’ worth of relief ventures. “Because of the eruption, and due to our water being provided by surface water, our entire water supply was disrupted for a month,” says Mr. Hull. “So, we worked with our staff, neighbouring islands, and colleagues to deliver water to communities in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. We provided other relief supplies to our national emergency organization here, things like beds and pots for people who were at the various shelters.”
THE ALL CLEAR
La Soufrière’s eruption caused the country to be categorised into zones, from the most dangerous red zone to the safe green zone. “Within the red zone, which is closest to La Soufrière, our network was disrupted by the heavy ash cover,” explains Mr. Hull. “We have about 20,000 households living in that red zone, so their lives were disrupted, and they were evacuated out of that zone into the green and amber zones of the country. Our fixed line and mobile networks were disrupted in the red zones due to the damage
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to our mobile equipment and infrastructure, or damage to fiber connecting those communities. It took heavy manpower and speed to rebuild and restore our mobile sites, as well as our fixed fiber and HFC networks in those communities.”
The volcano continued to erupt from April 9th to April 22nd. “The volcano is still being monitored closely,” says Mr. Hull. “We are now on a full all-clear. The level has been downgraded to safe. People who were previously evacuated were given the all-clear around the middle of August and they have all been repatriated back to their homes. There is quite a bit of development work and repairs of bridges and roads to be done, and in some communities the water supply is not fully back yet. However, our services are live again to all households in the red zone.”
ONGOING CHALLENGE
As with the rest of the world, FLOW and Saint Vincent are coping with COVID-19. “Unfortunately, our COVID numbers are rising again,” says Mr. Hull. “In the space of two weeks, we moved from under 50 cases to just over 157 active cases, with an average of about 20 or so per day. It’s not as dire as other neighbouring islands, but it’s trending in the wrong direction. Unfortunately, our vaccination levels are quite low – we’re presently at about 12% of the population fully vaccinated – so that is a bit of a challenge for us.”
“At FLOW, we are helping to promote vaccination,” says Mr. Hull. “We are supporting the Ministry of Health with their communications, sending out SMS messages and supporting their immediate campaigns and so on. We’re also doing that internally for staff, including launching an initiative to do some user sessions with independent doctors to come and speak to the staff in small groups. On top of that we’re going to offer a few incentives for our internal staff to get vaccinated. So, we are doing our part, both internally and for the wider community, working with the health authorities to get the vaccination rate to go in a better direction.”
THE FUTURE OF FLOW
FLOW’s goal now is to increase their connection with the community in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to grow their brand. “We want to ensure that people are connected when they need to be, and that we deliver on our commitments,” says Mr. Hull. “We are moving to offering the best speeds in the market, retiring legacy networks, connecting entire households, and upgrading households to faster connectivity, from their internet to entertainment services to mobility. Our future is hinged on offering a full suite of services to the household so that they’re connected everywhere and, more importantly, to continue to grow our penetration into the community and close those digital divides that still exist.” c
