Liberty Caribbean Urges Telecoms to Build Customer Trust Through Network Reliability

WESTERN BUREAU: Telecommunications providers across the Caribbean must work continuously to preserve their reputation for reliability if they hope to retain customer confidence, particularly in the face of theft, vandalism and storm damage, according to Liberty Caribbean's senior manager of government and regulatory affairs, Charles Douglas.

Douglas was addressing the recently concluded 20th conference of the Organisation of Caribbean Utility Regulators (OOCUR), held in Trelawny. He argued that the viability of any telecoms network ultimately rests on whether subscribers believe in the service and in the operator's capacity to recover when things go wrong.

"Trust is important, because we have to trust that when the phone rings, the caller is who they claim to be. We have to trust that the network is pure, and we have to trust that regulators and operators are acting in the public interest," said Douglas. "Part of having a trusted network is being able to rely on it when you want to use it, and it needs to be there for you, it needs to work."

He noted that the company has poured billions of dollars into regional infrastructure and has a strong commercial interest in keeping that infrastructure dependable. "Having invested billions of dollars in networks across the region to serve the populace and to make a fair return, it matters hugely to us that the network remains trusted and can be relied on, and we are investing all our efforts to achieve that," Douglas continued. "Are we perfect? Absolutely not, but we want you to understand that our 150-year legacy in the region is built on trust, reliability and partnership."

Turning to outages, Douglas walked delegates through the steps Liberty Caribbean has taken to limit the damage caused by criminal interference and major weather events such as Hurricane Melissa, which tore through the island's western parishes last October.

"Theft and vandalism are significant, because they disrupt the network and undermine reliability and public safety," he said. He pointed to community engagement work designed to encourage residents to see the network as a shared asset, alongside cooperation with the police on investigations, the use of private security where needed, and physical hardening of equipment with tamper-resistant enclosures and tracking technology.

On the question of cell-site resilience, after many towers were left with wires hanging loose following Melissa, Douglas said the company is engaging with relevant agencies to address the weaknesses exposed by the storm.

"We do cooperate with municipalities, local authorities, and local government to ensure we meet the standards for building or granting of permits in order to protect the integrity of these networks, so that they can withstand a Category 4 storm. And now we know what a Category 5 storm is like, we can make improvements there," he said.

Jamaica's wider telecoms sector, including mobile carriers FLOW and Digicel, took a heavy hit from Hurricane Melissa. Both operators have reported that roughly 90 per cent of their fixed facilities, including home telephone service, have since been restored.

The two carriers have also contended with repeated acts of vandalism over the years, with cables being cut or stolen on multiple occasions. In December 2025, FLOW and Digicel publicly urged lawmakers to introduce harsher penalties for those caught damaging or stealing telecoms equipment.