FLOW

FLOW, formerly LIME was known as b-mobile and before that Cable and Wireless (C&W) Jamaica. Most of the actions of the Lime this year has been about acquire the FLOW company and business. LIME with its parent company Cable and Wireless was focused on branching off into the cable television industry so flow was bought and now lime renamed to FLOWSo the public is watchful for the customer service it will deliver.

I still think that the effects of C&WJ are haunting FLOW at this time. The merger has only made the skepticism stronger. Since November 2008, the management of LIME has been playing catch up with the fairly newly opened up telecoms market in Jamaica. Since adopting the name Lime, C&WJ had to do heavy public relations work and at the same time advance in their engineering aspect to keep up with the new competition.  Along with the name change LIME provided a long anticipated HSDPA 3.5G network, 2 years overdue. Then the network hardware was upgraded so that customers' phones, mainly blackberry branded, could use EDGE(Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution), at a price 6 times that of the competition, years after Digicel made it available to Jamaicans. For some customers Lime's EDGE was faster than the competition's.

The 3.5G Network service, Lime launched in June 2009 was a US$40million dollar investment. By 2010 management would have heard about the positive responses and the complaints. So more projects were launched including a flurry of advertisement campaigns to fend off competition from Digicel. With the competition for 3G users, between 2010 and 2012 Lime's management mainly looked at pricing and packaging of the product offerings. With Claro out of the picture in early 2012. The management team of Lime decided to accompany its superior network service in 3G with lower prices.

Management seemed to try to enhance operations. And 2013 prices got lower but network service issues plagued the company. Reports of Cable theft due to the scrap metal industry increased. In fact, the RJR published article, 'LIME to seek Government's help in curbing cable theft', stted that since 2000 to 2013 LIME lost J$300-million  to cable thieves. Management heard the complaints of customers who were receiving frequent drop calls and poor reception. Data service was slow for the most part in some locations. LIME seemed to then invest heavily leading up to the number portability and FLOW acquisition. And although the complaints about LIME 's service soared in 2014 the company still managed to to top the customer survey of utility companies mentioned earlier. That also shows that the management's decision to sponsor almost all the sporting events in Jamaica played an important role in impressing the public.

Therefore, I think LIME's management has been more than effective over the years. They made mistakes and learned from them.

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REFERENCE

Broderick, M. (2015, June 13). People's Report: NWC draining me of patience. Retrieved October 13, 2015, from http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/letters/20150613/peoples-report-nwc-draining-me-patience 

History of Jamaica Black River. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2015. http://villaswithclass.com/port-antonio-jm.html

Lester, S. (2013, December 21). What purpose does NWC serve? Retrieved October 13, 2015, from http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20131221/cleisure/cleisure6.html 

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NWC customers complain about high water bills. (2008, September 26). Retrieved October 13, 2015, from http://rjrnewsonline.com/local/nwc-customers-complain-about-high-water-bills 

NWC expecting amnesty rush; to open offices today - News. (2015, July 4). Retrieved October 13, 2015, from http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/NWC-expecting-amnesty-rush--to-open-offices-today_19158716 

NWC reports widespread theft of water meters - News. (2014, December 14). Retrieved October 13, 2015, from http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/NWC-reports-widespread-theft-of-water-meters 

Plans for the Future. (n.d.). Retrieved October 4, 2015.

Rail transport in Jamaica. (n.d.). Retrieved October 4, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Jamaica