EDITOR: I met John Malone many years ago in Colorado when I worked for a company that made electronic components for one of his many telecommunications companies. He is almost exactly my age (one year younger) and the owner of Liberty Global, and is therefore the current owner of “FLOW” (God help us). I have resisted writing to him (ours was a simple business relationship), because I felt he would have sorted out the problems with Karib Cable, Columbus Communications and Cable and Wireless when he assumed ownership of the merged entities, through various consolidations and transfers and buyouts. He has not.{{more}}

Cable TV here is poor, both in reception (pixel, voice break-ups, interruptions and loss of signal), as well as some channels not being available at certain times, channel schedule information is inaccurate or unavailable, etc, and broadband is constantly going off, interrupted, then coming back on unpredictably, especially a problem when you are uploading or downloading.

John might not remember me, but hopefully he will, and some remediation might result. I do need to go back to the States soon, and will certainly be looking to drop in on him, as he is an amazingly accessible person, and hopefully some improvement might be forthcoming.

But why, I have to ask myself, is that necessary? Because he has delegated too much authority to incompetent subordinates? Because his holdings are too widespread? Because those responsible for his Caribbean operations are happy with being a monopoly on this island and therefore don’t give a damn if their service sucks, because the locals have no option?

Mr Malone is no fool; he impressed me as being very bright and honest and hardworking, not out to manipulate or deceive his customers or suppliers. I have to believe the fault lies directly with lazy, incompetent, and/or indifferent local management. But I’ll try to find out and let you know what he thinks and what he might do, once apprised of the current situation here.

Leslie Parker