Yesterday, Port Royal became the first community to receive full "triple play"- Internet, telephone and digital cable - service from Jamaica's newest tele-communications company, Flow.

Close to 1,500 people currently reside in Port Royal, a historic community.  Rick Pardy, Flow's chief executive officer told the Observer, that the company anticipates that at least half of the approximately 500 households in that community would be connected by next week.

"We also plan to provide the free Internet service for the learning centre here," Pardy added.  But for majority of the residents who gathered yesterday, a few metres from the square under tents designated for signing up for the various services, it meant that they would no longer have to squint or bang on their TV sets to watch a movie or television programme.

"When me did just get cable me did get all of the channels, but after a while me lucky if me can see three or four of the channels," one resident, who yesterday signed up of the Flow's digital service said.  The price for digital cable ranges from $650 to $3,900 for between 45 and 250 channels.  Digital land line services begin at $495 and Internet services range from $650 to $2,450.

Yesterday, not even another earthquake could tear the children and some adults away from the areas that had been set up to demonstrate the services Flow had to offer.  "My family signed up for cable, Kyle Watler told the Observer, as he flipped through the channels on a TV that had been set up.  "I like Flow because it is much more updated and it has a lot more channels to offer."

Similarly, children and adults alike crowded the telephone and computers, equipped with the Internet, that were part of the promotions.  One woman quickly hung up the phone and blurted out "it can call farrin (overseas) fi true," immediately after she discovered that her call had gone through.

Meantime, a Flow representative who had been registering residents for the various services, pointed out that most of the people she processed were interested in the digital cable services.  The Internet, she said, came in a close second.

Member of Parliament for East Kingston and Port Royal, Phillip Paulwell, commended Flow for choosing Port Royal as the first community in the island to receive its services.  The Minister of Commerce, Science and Technology also noted that the total investment of the four major telecommunications providers was close to $70 billion.

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