Telecommunications and Internet Provider Flow, has announced a well-advanced $4million fibre network system upgrade throughout the Turks and Caicos Islands, slated to complete in the first quarter of 2022, its CEO Joanne Missick told reporters.
Missick, at the launch of the company’s Christmas Promotion on Tuesday, November 30, said Flow will be ripping out its entire copper system and will replace it with fibre cables, which she said is a much better technology.
“We have invested over $4million in upgrading our network, and from 2022, we will be a fully fibre network…fibre in all of the islands,” she said, informing that the island of South Caicos has already been outfitted with the service, while the other islands are at least 80 percent complete.
“South Caicos is completed. Providenciales is about 80 percent completed. Grand Turk is about 95 percent completed, and we have North Caicos that would be completed early next year.
“So, we are ripping out all of the copper to give the customers a better experience,” she said.
She added: “We know that fibre is the way to go, so the experience of the copper will be no more in 2022. We promised our customers that we will be giving them a better experience, so this is what we are doing.”
In the meantime, Missick said customers in Grand Turk, who are experiencing broadband internet issues will not be charged for rental for December, which she said is compensation for the capacity discomfort customers on that island have been experiencing.
“For the month of December, we know their experiences, we are going to be waiving rental, so Grand Turk customers will have free rental for the month of December…no bills to pay. That is our gifts to them, they are very loyal, and we want to give something back for the issues they have been experiencing,” she said.
The Flow CEO pointed out that Flow was working overtime to exponentially upgrade that service soon. She said the upgrade primarily comprise of tower reconstructions, to offer greater bandwidth capacity. She pointed out that two towers have already been done, with the one for Grand Turk nearing completion.
“And you would know that there are some issues in the other islands…it is due to the lack of capacity. So, we are rebuilding our towers. We have two completed, the final one will be in Grand Turk…a total of three…because we have an actual microwave connection that goes into those islands.
“So, once that is completed, the bigger antennas have more capacity and they (customers) will have world-class service just as we do here in Provo,” she said.