Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
As of yesterday, Flow landline and MiPhone post-paid cellular customers can now call free between both networks, the first such deal in the Jamaican telecommunications industry. Pre-paid MiPhone customers will pay just $1 per minute for these calls.
At the launch yesterday at the Hilton Kingston hotel, New Kingston, executives from both companies played down talks of a merger following the synergy which further expands the reach of billionaire Michael Lee Chin into the local media and telecommunications industry.
Flow, whose parent company Columbus Communications Limited is almost 50 per cent owned by Mr. Lee Chin, offers a joint broadband Internet, landline and cable television service. In April he bought a controlling stake in the CVM Group, gaining him television, radio and print assets.
"This new service of course is made available by a shared vision between these two companies in terms of telecommunications services in Jamaica and here on a new era of true value-added telecommunications packages for both consumers and businesses alike," said MiPhone Chief Operating Officer, Colin Webster.
The new service covers MiPhone's current customer base of over 100,000 and what Andrew Fazio, Flow Director of Commercial Sales said are his company's 2-4,000 residential landline customers, while he said their business landline service remained in roll-out stage. The new synergy has been three months in the making with both partners confident of continuing following a six-month review, said Mr. Webster.
Remain patient
Mr. Fazio asked for customers to remain patient during Flow's residential roll-out which began in July following the landing in March of its undersea fibre channel which connects Jamaica with the United States. He said that 100 miles of fibre cable were being laid each month with a target of 40,000 residential customers by year end.
Speaking to The Gleaner after the function he said that Flow had now laid cable sufficient to officially launch its landline service to businesses next month. Both companies said they were confident of success in this market since the service can eliminate telephone bills between a company's different locations and its mobile employees.
