Flow Jamaica will miss its original deadline to blanket Jamaica with subscriber television coverage by two years, but says the company will not be cutting back on its capital investments having already secured credit.

President Michelle English says Flow, back in May, tied up US$100 million of financing from "a syndicate of primarily local banks", that will pay for the continued roll-out of its triple-play service.

"We secured our financing prior to the issues in the financial market, so that is still there and being utilised towards our build-out," English said. "The facility to fund our business plan was put forward by the lenders and that remains in place at the rates that we signed at the contracts. Having negotiated and got financing in place prior to these times is quite good for us, because it is a very difficult time. The way it's running now, the cost would be much higher than it was when we first negotiated our credit resource."

Nationwide service licence

Flow is obligated under the licence secured in 2007 to provide cable service nationwide, but now says the project will be wrapped up in 2013 and not 2011 as originally planned.

The company, since its entry in the Jamaican market, has chosen to grow by acquisition, while building out a digital network at the same time, leaving the small cable providers who are hanging on to their business having to play catch-up.

Flow, which falls under the Columbus Communications Group in which billionaire Michael Lee Chin has a substantial stake, followed through with nine acquisitions, including Entertainment Systems in late 2007 which set off a wave of protests that Flow's increasing domination of the cable market could eventually leave subscribers without real options on price and service providers.

No new deals were announced last year.

Instead, the company focussed on the construction of a US$80-million submarine cable system, making Jamaica the only country in the region with a direct undersea fibre-optic connection to the United States, through Boca Raton in Florida, and South America, it said.

US$180 million investment

In the past two years, Flow has invested more than US$180 million (approximately J$13 billion) in its cabling system and triple-play network.

This year, the company will refocus on its intra-island broadband services in order to meet its revised target but has not indicated the level of penetration achieved to date.

English says the company recognises that business could otherwise be affected if its customers' incomes continue to erode as the economy declines.

"We will have to wait and see if there is any impact in the coming year - if there is significant reduction in jobs, in disposable incomes - and we are looking at ways in which we can still provide a quality product at an affordable price," she said.

The company, which at market entry had announced it was willing to buy those cable companies willing to sell, says that programme is ongoing, with several prospects under review.

English, however, said there was no hurry to close the deals.

"We don't have any immediate plans, but there is certainly cash available for acquisition and continued build-out of our network," she said. "Our focus at this time is on constructing a new triple-play broadband network."

Flow has some 175,000 homes on its triple-play network, which includes digital cable TV, digital landline and high-speed Internet, as well as 100,000 homes that are provided with digital video.

mark.titus@gleanerjm.com