Above: Kurleigh Prescod. Photo by Marlon Rouse, courtesy C&W Communications.
C&W Communications, the operators of Flow, Flow Business and C&W Business, has announced a suite of new roaming plans to coincide with The Declaration of St George’s Towards the Reduction of Intra-CARICOM Roaming Charges.
C&W’s new plans include radically reduced rates that will see Caribbean nationals paying far less for inter-regional connections than ever before.
“Flow is proud to make a concrete step towards answering the call of CARICOM and its citizens to reduce mobile roaming charges in our region and the signing of the Declaration of St George’s is an excellent first step in establishing a tangible framework,” said Kurleigh Prescod, VP, C&W Communications, South Caribbean.
The agreement between CARICOM, C&W Communications and Digicel was signed in St George’s, Grenada earlier this week.
“Flow has a long and proud history of providing reliable connections for the people of the Caribbean, and we are committed to working with all stakeholders to deliver greater opportunities and added value for our customers, and likewise, all those who communicate via our networks.”
Prescod said the company’s new roaming plans were simple and transparent and were developed to eliminate the shock of receiving an unexpectedly high bill.
“We are pleased to share that we have taken the first transformative step to provide our valued CARICOM customers with significantly reduced roaming packages which deliver simple, consistent and transparent rates, an overall reduction in charges and the elimination of bill shock for our customers,” he said.
Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell, the lead CARICOM Head of Government with responsibility for science and technology, said the Declaration of St George’s signals a period of extensive collaboration between CARICOM and two of the major telecommunications operators within the region.
“Our citizens will be able to travel without the fear of incurring the normal exorbitant charges for voice and data usage as they conduct business or keep in touch with loved ones. We firmly believe that this critical reduction in roaming charges will help drive digital commerce, regional integration and economic development,” he said.
“On behalf of my colleague Heads of Government and the people of the Caribbean community, I thank them for that commitment to significantly reduce roaming rates in the region, but I stress again that there is much more to be done as we seek to deliver on our original objective.”
Mitchell said parties to the declaration have agreed on an implementation timeframe between the second and third quarter of this year, considering the technical aspects of the implementation and the public awareness campaigns that must take place.