Flow Jamaica’s $16.1b quarterly revenue still trails pre-Melissa levels

Flow Jamaica booked US$101.8 million (J$16.1 billion) in revenue during the third-quarter ending September, down 5.6 per cent from US$107.8 million a year earlier, as the telecom operator continued to trade below Hurricane Melissa levels.

That said, the company sought ways to offset inflation locally and across select countries in the region.

“Commercially, we continue to be opportunistic on targeting price increases across the group, notably in Panama through the third quarter and, more recently, in Jamaica,” stated Liberty Latin America President and CEO Balan Nair in his earnings call on Thursday.

Inflation at 8.6 per cent to September continues to trend outside the Bank of Jamaica’s target range of four to six per cent.

Parent company Liberty Latin America, which reports Jamaica as a separate geographic market, told investors it had restored most of the connections severed by the storm but would not commit to a timetable for the remainder. There can be “no guarantee as to the cadence of future reconnections”, the company said.

About 32,000 revenue-generating units remained offline at September 30 — 16,000 broadband, 12,000 fixed-line telephony and 4,000 video. That compares with roughly 86,000 at the end of December, a recovery of some 54,000 connections, or 63 per cent of the backlog, over nine months.

Melissa struck in late October 2025, causing what the company described as significant damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure in the southwest and moderate damage in the northwest. Kingston and the eastern parishes escaped the worst.

“As a result of the impact of Hurricane Melissa, we incurred lower revenue during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2026 and expect to incur lower revenue, for our Liberty Caribbean segment during the remainder of 2026 relative to the 2025 pre-hurricane period,” stated the company in its financials.

This decrease is predominantly due to lower fixed connectivity that has been offline for a period of time together with the impact of subscriber losses, it added.

“We continue to work hard to restore connectivity, but there can be no guarantee as to the cadence of future reconnections or the pace and magnitude of future revenue recovery,” it stated.”In addition, we expect to continue to incur additional property and equipment additions as we restore damaged networks.”

Arising from the storm, Liberty Latin America attributed roughly US$27 million of lost revenue over the nine months to the hurricane, and about US$29 million of lost adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortisation. The company also spent an additional US$40 million on property and equipment over the nine months rebuilding damaged networks, US$15 million of it in the September quarter.

January to September

Nine-month revenue from Jamaica fell 3.5 per cent to US$306.6 million from US$317.8 million.

The company traced the decline chiefly to lower average subscriber numbers across broadband, video and fixed-line telephony, compounded by weaker average revenue per user on video and telephony. Mobile has run the other way: average revenue per user rose on the back of price increases taken in Jamaica in the third quarter of 2025 and again in the first quarter of 2026, alongside growth in postpaid subscribers.

Flow is the consumer brand of Cable & Wireless Jamaica, a 92 per cent-owned subsidiary.

business@gleanerjm.com