OfReg finds Flow’s cell tower safety inadequate
(CNS): A new report from the Utility Regulation and Competition Office (OfReg) has revealed some serious issues regarding the poor state of Flow’s infrastructure, the safety concerns surrounding it, as well as the management of and knowledge about its cell towers. The report shows that Flow, which owns most of the local communications infrastructure, has a poor understanding of the safety and risks associated with the towers and has failed to comply with directions from the regulator.
The worrying issues were revealed during a lengthy investigation that began in early 2023 but was not completed until last month. It was triggered after Logic sought access to the communications towers in order to roll out its mobile network. However, the company was having trouble getting any response from Flow to requests about infrastructure sharing, which dated back several years.
Logic then raised its concerns with OfReg. In response, OfReg initiated a thorough investigation to ensure compliance with legal requirements and the terms outlined in their ICT licences, according to a release issued Wednesday by the regulator.
OfReg formally declared a dispute under the ICT Act, setting a clear deadline for Flow to respond to Logic’s infrastructure sharing requests. However, the regulator said that Flow indicated a lack of sufficient information about its own infrastructure, rendering it unable to assess the feasibility of sharing with Logic.
As a result, OfReg launched a formal investigation. In July 2023, it released a preliminary report highlighting several issues and detailing the necessary steps for resolving the dispute. In August 2023, after confirming that Flow was unable to provide adequate information concerning six towers, OfReg directed Flow to take immediate action to ensure compliance.
This included directions to cease work on the towers due to safety concerns, conduct structural surveys and produce information pertaining to structural integrity, general safety, and availability of access for Logic.
Flow submitted the required information along with the results of their structural assessment, revealing that five of the six towers in question could not accommodate additional load due to exceeded wind speed thresholds. One tower in Cayman Brac was not at its threshold limit but was reserved for Flow’s future use, thus preventing access for Logic. After a thorough investigation, OfReg issued its final determination on 31 January 2025.
Among its conclusions, the office ordered Flow to enhance its processes to manage tower sharing requests efficiently and provide stakeholders with a clear guide for future applications, grant Logic access to the tower in Cayman Brac, and confirm efficient use of the five Grand Cayman towers.
Flow must also present plans to address the structural integrity of its towers, which pose risks to both personnel safety and third-party equipment, and must report on measures implemented to ensure that towers exceeding wind speed standards do not jeopardise public health, safety, or operations of other licensees.
The regulator said that until Flow complies with all the requirements, it is prohibited from attaching or modifying any equipment on towers in need of repair. However, it failed to comply with this directive. “Flow’s failure to comply with directions is concerning. We are therefore considering the extent of this non-compliance towards identifying appropriate next steps,” OfReg Interim CEO Sonji Myles said.
On 24 February 2025, Flow provided confirmation that it was already working to comply with the
requirements of the decision, OfReg said.
“We are committed to fostering fair competition and ensuring the efficient use of our telecommunications infrastructure,” Myles said. “This determination underscores our proactive approach to addressing disputes and holding providers accountable for their responsibilities. Moving forward, we will continue to protect the interests of all stakeholders and promote transparency in our sector.”
See the full report in the CNS Library.
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Category: Business, ICT, Politics, Private Sector Oversight
Why is OfReg only targeting FLOW ?? When there are others far worst than them.
Because it’s based on industry competitors. If the topic is the internet, you can not say Electricity.
We find offreg useless and a waste of money. Please shut it down. The sooner the better.
okay, so ofreg points out something that we all knew for years on end… now what?? More election squabble as usual. seems like that place is more about marketting than actually solving the hard issues.
Third world is as third world does. No shame. Cayman Islands are still doing great for a third world run island and they some how managed to add another ten years to the dump.
Dear CEO of FLOW,
Pay your f$&@! Vendors that work hard for you!
It’s a good thing we have OfReg to protect us from the likes of Starlink!
Have you read the consultation paper that Ofreg issued? The stumbling block in the government.
https://www.ofreg.ky/consultations/notice-of-consultation-ict-2024-2-framework-for-the-licensing-of-satellite-based-telecommunications-providers
well, time to see if offereg actually has teeth or if it’s all just for show (yes I know it’s clearly the second…).
flow failed to comply with the law and then directly violated the instructions given my the regulator so it’s clear they need to be brought to heel. if offereg doesn’t make an example here then it might as well be dissolved and it’s duties given to other entities.
It should not come as a surprise to anyone that Flow has a poor understanding of the safety and risks associated with the towers and has failed to comply with directions from the regulator. Flow, in my opinion, has seemingly neglected or outsourced many aspects of their local infrastructure and operations. Nobody at the company in Cayman seems to know anything about anything. What does it say about the company that they would allow their towers to reach the point where they pose risks to personnel safety?
It should not come as a surprise to anyone that CIG and general population has a poor understanding of the safety and risks associated with building more healthcare facilities that use
radiation in diagnostics and treatments. Unfortunately there is no regulating agency. In fact no laws exists. Bermuda enacted Radiation safety act in 1972.
The Adeptus Ridiculous Activates
INCOMING TRANSMISSION: SOURCE—OFREG. STATUS—MAXIMUM ABSURDITY ACHIEVED.
The mighty servitors of OfReg, those noble protectors of corporate monopolies, have once again risen from their slumber. Faced with the existential threat of actual competition, they have moved swiftly—not to improve service, not to enforce higher standards, but to ban the very thing that might render them irrelevant.
For what is Starlink, but the great and terrible specter of functional, reliable, and modern technology—an abomination to the bureaucrats of Absurdistan! Such efficiency, such ease of access, CANNOT BE ALLOWED.
Thus, OfReg, in its infinite wisdom, has deployed its most powerful weapon:
• Bureaucratic obstruction!
• Regulatory strangulation!
• A wall of arbitrary rules so dense that not even light can escape!
Let us be clear: This is not about consumer protection. This is about entrenching Flow’s stranglehold, ensuring that the people of Cayman remain shackled to dysfunctional service, inexplicable billing, and customer support that doubles as a crash course in verbal abuse.
For what would happen if Caymanians were given a choice? What if they were freed from Flow’s tyranny?
• Their calls might actually connect!
• Their internet might actually work!
• Their bills might actually make sense!
But no, such things are HERESY in the eyes of OfReg! The grand machine of incompetence must be preserved at all costs!
And so, Starlink is banned. Not because it is unsafe, not because it is unreliable, but because it is TOO GOOD. Too independent. Too threatening to the fragile ecosystem of mediocrity that OfReg and its corporate overlords have worked so hard to cultivate.
Meanwhile, Flow continues its descent into madness, secure in the knowledge that no matter how badly it fails, there is no alternative, no escape. The people of Cayman remain trapped, their only hope of reliable communication now relegated to carrier pigeons and divine intervention.
The Adeptus Ridiculous issues this decree:
The people of Caymanmunda are not customers, but prisoners. The bars of their cage are made of failed regulations, rigged policies, and monopolistic greed. OfReg is not a regulator. It is a gatekeeper of stagnation, a servitor of corporate dominance, and a sworn enemy of progress.
And so, the island remains an information black hole, its digital infrastructure rotting, its services dysfunctional, and its citizens screaming into the void.
All hail OfReg, the Patron Saint of Anti-Progress!
TRANSMISSION ENDS.
Title: The Ministry of Mediocrity’s Finest Hour (Or: How to Trip Over Your Own Regulatory Shoelaces in Real-Time)
Ah, my dearest herald of righteous indignation, once again you grace us with a grand, sweeping declaration of bureaucratic buffoonery, a tale so dramatic, so operatic in its lamentations, that one almost expects a full orchestra to swell in the background as we read.
Alas, let us strip away the decorative filigree, the grandiose proclamations, and the lovingly detailed dystopian sci-fi roleplay, and get straight to the heart of the matter:
OfReg has decided that the best way to serve the people is to prevent them from accessing better service. Starlink is too effective, too independent, too much of a threat to the lovingly preserved mediocrity of the local telecom monopoly, and therefore, it must be stopped.
There. One sentence. No need for dramatic transmissions from the frontlines of the War Against Competence, no need for Adeptus Ridiculous proclamations, no need for a regulatory black hole devouring all hope and light—just a simple, digestible truth.
But no, my dear chronicler of grievances, such restraint is beneath you. You do not merely state a point—you hurl it from the heavens like an angry Olympian, drenching it in absurdity, drowning it in metaphors so thick one could spread them on toast. And for what? So that we may all appreciate the sheer poetic agony of Cayman’s telecom industry?
I shall not stand in your way. You are committed to your cause, after all—a lone warrior in the crusade against inefficient regulation, armed with nothing but a thesaurus and a flair for the theatrical.
And yet, I must insist: touch the grass, my friend. Step away from your keyboard, gaze upon the horizon, and remember that one does not need to construct a gripping intergalactic saga every time a government agency makes a predictably boneheaded decision. Sometimes, it is enough to simply say:
“OfReg is banning a good thing to protect a bad thing. This is stupid.”
But where would be the fun in that?
Until next time, with love,
The Duke
TRUMP!
Have you read the consultation that Ofreg issued? The stumbling block in the government.
https://www.ofreg.ky/consultations/notice-of-consultation-ict-2024-2-framework-for-the-licensing-of-satellite-based-telecommunications-providers
Dear Duke,
I fail to see the logic behind castigating Adeptus Ridiculous for his ornate, verbose missive with an equally resplendent, rambling retort.
Your concluding declaration is succinct and sufficient:
“OfReg is banning a good thing to protect a bad thing. This is stupid”, nuff said.
Or, perhaps I shall enter the competition and respond in kind:
The bumbling bureaucratic quagmire operating under the moniker “OfReg”, in its infinite wisdom, is instituting a prohibition on an unquestionably beneficial entity, all in an effort to safeguard and preserve an unquestionably detrimental and allegedly undesirable counterpart. This action, devoid of any semblance of rational foresight or logical coherence, strikes me as utterly and profoundly nonsensical, bordering on the absurd. The very notion of such a misguided course of action—an exercise in folly, one might say—requires no further elaboration or explanation. It is self-evident in its sheer absurdity.
Why do you care so much to write such a long statement?
I’m here for the money and then going back to Canada to continue hating the USA
Is it now illegal to write in a clear and concise manner? What’s with all the drivel?
so can we see the structual engineering report.
I didn’t know ofReg was into that and had a structural engineer on staff.
They should not be regulating towers.
just what is on them.
Apparently your reading abilities are questionable
“This included directions to cease work on the towers due to safety concerns, conduct structural surveys and produce information pertaining to structural integrity, general safety, and availability of access for Logic.”
Safety is the purvey of the Department of Labour.
Not Ofreg
Could Minister Rankine please advise us about this tower situation in light of OfREG Findings Thanx
What happen now someone playing politics I worked on several telecommunications projects sometime back with a standup Caymanian logistics manager who refused to allow upgrades to the cell service pole sites to take place until civil works were complete on over 7 towers through all three islands He made numerous reports to both the service provider and suppliers about the terrible conditions of the cell towers and govt regulator bosses and about a certain MP company who was supposed to be repairing these pole sites but was turning a blind eye and painting over the rust and decaying Equipment reports were even file about the sites being contaminated with Hazardous and dangerous chemicals and dangerous work conditions due abandoned equipment left on site Photographs were provide to both the govt regulator and Environment department I think absolutely nothing was done the provider brought a managers in from overseas without work permits to cover up these work and equipment related issues who then refused to pay the manager at the conclusion of project because he complained about the situation. So I am not sure why they bothering Flow only all of sudden about this .i have not seen the manager in long time he may have left Cayman I believe