Flow country manager confident no island will be isolated in an emergency

LAST WEEK FRIDAY August 27, FLOW SVG launched its upgraded services to the Bequia, with Internet speed up to 250 mbps, a vast improvement from the past download speed. But, would FLOW’s newly upgraded system be able to maintain the 250mbps download speed, with a large number of persons logged onto the system?

Responding to this question Flow SVG Country Wayne Hull told the assembled media that “Our network has the capacity to support the entire population.”

Hull said the good thing about the sub-sea cable is that all it would take is a flick of a switch to expand the capacity, “So the network can support 250 megs for the entire island of Bequia.”

Another concern raised was whether FLOW has learnt anything from the April 9-22 explosive eruptions of La Soufriere volcano and what role would Bequia play in the event the St. Vincent and the Grenadines communications network is compromised due to such an emergency.

“I would like to say this is testament to our team and the strength of our network, short of what came after the eruptions, service was available to St. Vincent and the Grenadines across the board,” Hull responded.

Telecommunications services were compromised in the Red Zone communities particularly in North Windward where equipment was covered by volcanic ash.

“The network is in place. We have been preparing for the volcano since the first activity was reported by [the National Emergency Management Organisation] NEMO in (December) 2020” Hull said, “We have emergency plans in place.”

Where Kick ‘em Jenny is concerned, the way the networks are configured they are “built-in with redundancy so let’s say if Grenada gets cut off, there is a path north that could go back and come back south. It is built in with redundancy so that no island is isolated should something happen,”the FLOW official assured.