Flow Curacao Internet Logo

Columbus entered the Curacao retail market in January 2010 through the acquisition of Curacao Cable TV NV. They kept the CCT employees and their building, but they came with their own equipment. The existing infrastructure got replaced and they proceeded to put up their cables in various neighborhoods around the island. The company officially launched “Flow Curacao” on August 10th, 2010, in the Dominguito/Bottelier area.

Columbus Communications Curacao NV is wholly-owned by Columbus. It markets its digital cable television and broadband internet under the brand name Flow Curacao.

Flow Curacao Internet

Readers of the Curacao Island, have considered Flow Curacao Internet Broadband and TV services to be rated with the following number of stars:

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Flow Curacao Internet Services

By the Fall of 2010 a new fully digital video head end was constructed and provided Flow customers access to more than 250 video and audio channels‚ by far the most comprehensive television service in Curacao. In addition, Flow offers residential broadband internet packages ranging from an entry level service of 5 Mbps up to a blazing 100 Mbps. In partnership with its sister company, Columbus Business Solutions, Curacao businesses now have access to a broad range of corporate data services including data storage, disaster recovery, IP services, hosting and business continuity services.

Flow currently offers residential, business and double play (Internet and TV) packages and is the first company to introduce a 100 Mbps package on Curacao.

Flow Rates of Internet Broadband and TV Services

prices do not include 5% service tax

Requirements for Curacao Flow Installation

• No fixed phone line needed
• The installation is free
• Customers can choose between an open contract or a 1 year agreement
• No traffic limit
• No blocking of ports, protocols or websites
• 1 static IP is available upon request
• Session Initiation Protocol is allowed

Speed Tests & Reviews of Flow Services in Curacao

If you are a Flow customer or have some experience with Flow, let us know in the comment section below. You can see the results of some customers speed tests at Curacao connected.

Flow Coverage Map of Service Areas

Flow Curacao Internet Service Area

Flow Curacao Office

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Flow Call Center Hours

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The Curacao Island

IT infrastructure outsourcing is a global trend which presents many advantages for business owners. By choosing IT outsourcing providers with proper certifications, the financial burden of an expensive IT infrastructure can be avoided. IT outsourcing costs are balanced by the reduction of infrastructure but also maintenance. Additionally, managed IT services also provide greater peace of mind with their reliance on cloud backups. Three IT companies are offering their IT services in the Caribbean region: Digicel, CBS and LIME.

Trends in Outsourcing IT Services

IT companies are positioned to attack one of sector with the fastest growth in information technology — cloud computing via outsourced IT managed services.

When compared with IT outsourcing costs, revenues earned from cloud services last year are estimated at US$41 billion, and should grow to US$214 billion by 2020.

According to Michael HoShue (consultant at Ignition Technology Group, a partner of Flow under the IT infrastructure outsourcing business banner Columbus Business Solutions) demand for cloud services and IT companies providing IT solutions offshore grew by 68% in a year.

Within companies themselves, chief information officers (CIOs) are now ranking IT infrastructure outsourcing to the cloud as their second priority, from 16th in 2009.

Benefits of IT Managed Services

Any business can potentially benefit significantly from embracing the outsourcing of IT support and technology, explaining the incredible growth witnessed in the global demand on IT outsourcing providers.

Offshore IT services enable businesses to prevent expensive investment in IT infrastructure, such as servers, and software licenses and instead use IT managed services outsourced to information technology companies offshore. This allows them to forgo the purchase of expensive computing equipment and software.

Estimations on the potential savings from using managed services offered by an outsourced IT infrastructure range between 30 and 50 per cent for the customers.

Such innovation in IT services can bring business the edge of a cost-effective, offshore IT services on a pay as you go basis. Even the smallest companies can encounter great benefits from this type of IT support.

Beyond financial competitiveness, outsourcing IT services bring other non-negligible advantages such as automatic cloud backups.

CBS Niall Sheehy (regional IT business solutions vice-president), highlights the importance of IT data backups:

“40% of businesses that lose data in the event of a natural disaster fail to recommence operations.”

Together with diminishing capital expenses and decreasing IT maintenance, outsourced IT services allow a company to concentrate on other IT managed serviced and develop better strategies.

“Companies spend 70 per cent of the time maintaining legacy systems. Cloud services could release as much of that time to allow IT managers to focus of strategic direction.” (HoShue)

3 Top IT Outsourcing Providers Offshore in the Caribbean

Digicel Business now offers cloud backup, IT managed hosting and co-location to its corporate customers. It also plans to bring other IT and outsourcing services in the future including emails, hosted BlackBerry servers, virtual servers and cloud telecommunications.

In the same category of IT outsourcing providers, its competitor LIME already offers other IT services, such as IT managed network services, hosted email and exchange, disaster recovery, firewall monitoring, IT management and outsourced email marketing.

• Digicel made Jamaica its hub for cloud services. Digicel set down an investment of US$600 million in its information and telecommunication facility created in 2009. The ensuing IT services are available for outsourcing across the entire region and have received a Tier III Design Certification from The Uptime Institute. This certification of Tier III validates the redundancy behind the backups of the IT systems.
• CBS has set up its IT managed services in Curaçao and their facility also meets the Tier III classification. The country was chosen for its clement weather. Although Curacao is offshore in the Caribbean, it is hurricane-free which also explains why tourism in Curacao is booming. This facility under the Flow IT company header will now concentrate on attaining certifications (Tier 3, SAS 70 and ISO 27001) to retain its competitve edge.
• LIME is an IT outsourcing provider with IT facilities located across several continents and regions including the Caribbean, North America, South America and Central America. These facilities are Tier 2, 3 and 4.

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Curacao Trust Explanation

A trust fund is a legal entity where one party, the settlor, can set aside money or property for the benefit of another. A perfect example of this fiduciary service is of trust funds are the ones equivalent to long-term savings accounts set up by parents or grandparents in order to benefit a child.

The property can take the form of money, stocks, bonds, or an actual physical property but growth assets are typically placed into trust for the tax benefits explained below. A trustee holds it in a trust fund. The trustee is the person who looks after the property for the benefit of the child. The grantor, who contributed property to the trust, and the trustee can be the same person, but this is not necessarily so. Trusts can be created during a person’s life or in a will after death.

Trust Curacao Fiduciary Services

Personal trust services or corporate trust services come with numerous advantages.

In the case of a child too young to properly care for the property, a trust can act as spendthrift protection. The assets are protected for the beneficiary by the trustee until the child has reached the age declared in the trust. Often a trust fund will set this age to be the majority before it is accessible by the child.

Because of the removal of property from the trustee into the trust, this essentially protects these assets from the attack of future creditors. A discretionary trust can for example remove the ownership of the assets from the trustee while still benefiting him. Combines with the privacy benefit described below, this can asset protection cab pose legal and moral issues.

The grantor to the Curacao trust also benefits in the form of tax savings. Income, estate, and gift tax advantages are usual when setting up a Curacao trust. To comprehend the advantages in taxation of the establishment of a trust, contact a professional Curacao tax advisor or a financial consultant.

A Trust in Curacao can also be established for privacy purposes since the declarations in a will are public whereas those in a trust are not.

Trusts can be set up by trust companies in business agreements involving multiple parties to govern their structures.

Access to Trust Companies in Curacao

Once a trust fund is created, the funds pertain to the child. The grantor is not able to claim these funds. Based on the limits set forth by the trust, access by the child may involve part of the income or principals from the trust. In general trusts are created to limit the access to the trust fund by a minor without approval from the trustee.

Several types of international trust services rendered by Trust Service Companies or by Curacao Banks are available in Curacao.

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Curacao Breezes Resort User Rating

Breezes Curacao is the first Super-Inclusive resort in the Caribbean. The Curaçao island Dutch flavor brings a new sophisticated twist to the classic Breezes vacation.

Vote for Breezes Resorts Superclubs by clicking on one of the stars below:

You can read user reviews and add your own review in the comment section below.

Superclubs Breezes Curacao

The all inclusive resort is set up on 1500 feet of pure white sand, by blue waters that have attracted Scuba divers from around the world. Although the island is located just off the coast of South America, it remains a largely undiscovered paradise in the Caribbean. This may become your own private sanctuary since the full package hotel is adjacent to a pristine Undersea National Park. Stay on dry land and visit the Sea Aquarium next door or jump in the ocean for yourself from the beach.

With this holiday package, almost everything you can eat, drink and do is included, which makes Breezes Curacao an ideal destination for your family vacation. Keep your children excited, while you enjoy some excitement of your own at the largest casino in Curaçao, located right on the premises of the hotel.

Rooms at Breezes Curaçao

There are 333 rooms in the resort. All rooms have different bed-types and views and feature either a king size bed, a queen size bed, or a double bed. Each has its own air-conditioning, sofa, table & sitting chairs. Also included are a color cable TV, a direct-dial telephone, a desk with chair, your own coffee maker, a safe, a hair dryer, a bathroom with shower or bath tub, and finally a terrace, patio or balcony.

Views, suites and penthouse of Curacao Breezes Resort

The different views include either gardenview, oceanview, oceanfront. 42 ocean view suites with either king size or queen size beds include a table for two, a two-seat sofa and a balcony or patio. Two bedroom suites feature two separate bedrooms with a king size bed in each room. At the pinnacle of luxury, our only penthouse unit can connect to a two bedroom suite to create a living space suitable for six adults and up to four children.

Breezes Resorts All Included Activites

• Windsurfing
• Hobie cat sailing
• snorkeling
• Scuba Diving
• Paddle-boating
• Pool volleyball
• Tennis (night play available)
• Bicycles
• Table tennis
• Beach volleyball
• Trapeze and circus workshop
• Ice skating on synthetic rink
• Golf
• Fitness center
• Children Special Activities (sumo wrestling, bouncy boxing, pool, merengue & reggae classes…)

Restaurants in Breezes Curacao Hotel

• Jimmy’s Buffet (casual)
• Munasan (Japanese)
• Pastafari (Italian)
• Scotch Bonnet (Burgers)
• Superkids Snackbar

Pricing and Bookings

Compare prices between Curacao All Inclusive Resorts and book your stay with our affiliate partner: Book It.

Curacao Resorts

Other Curacao resorts reviewed on the Curacao Island include:

• Curacao Marriott Beach Resort
• Renaissance Curacao Resort

User Reviews for Breezes Curacao Resort

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Curacao Diving: Playa Kalki

This Curacao scuba dive is also known as Alice in Wonderland. Playa Kalki is at a sheltered cove, a great location for a day at the beach. It is considered one of Curacao’s best dive sites. Entry to this diving location is easy as there are steps descending to the beach; you then duck under the buoys on your way out down a gentle slope.

This Curacao dive offers some unusual underwater scenery. The bottom slopes gradually and from 30 feet. It gives the impression of rolling hills that are covered in coral. At about 60 feet towards the center of the cove there are gorgonians and mounds of star coral. Below 100 feet there are large sheets of plate coral. While there are less fish than in some other dive spots, hawksbill turtles can often be seen.

Tips for your Scuba Dive Trip

At Playa Kalki you can find a diving operator which will rent you scuba gear.

Snorkeling is also available from Playa Kalki.

This diving spot is available by shore or through the services of a dive shop by boat. It is located on the Northwest coast, off Westpunt, below the Kura Hulanda resort.

Your Review of Playa Kalki Scuba Dive

Is Playa Kalki one of the best dives in Curacao? Our visitors consider that the dive Playa Kalki is ranked with the following numbers of stars compared to all the other scuba diving dives in Curacao:

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Curacao Diving: Cas Abao

Cas Abao diving site features a shallow shelf near to the shore with a drop-0ff at about 30 feet which falls off sharply to sand below 130 feet.

The slope is very rich in marine lfe, especially in crevices beneath the coral heads. While diving, you can see lobsters and often several spotted drums together under one coral head. Towards the deeper part of the slope, large orange elephant ear sponges are found.

Tips for your Scuba Dive Vacation

Cas Abao is also one of the best Curacao snorkeling experiences.

On Cas Abao beach, you will find air and gear at the diving center located at the end of the beach.

This dive is accessible by boat but we recommend entering it from the shore.

Your Review of Cas Abao Scuba Dive

Is Cas Abao one of the best dives in Curacao? Our visitors consider that the dive Cas Abao is ranked with the following numbers of stars compared to all the other scuba diving dives in Curacao:

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Curacao Diving: Porto Mari

Scuba dive in one of the top sites on the island. Two healthy parallel reefs with a valley in between are home to a wide variety of reef life. At this scuba diving location, you will often see fish that are rare at other sites, including rays.

Dive operators moor at the buoy in the center of the bay, 30 ft above the diving site. Swimming straight out will take you over the first reef at 50 feet, then crossing the sandy valley leads to the second reef at about 60 feet. While scuba diving at Portomarie, you will find profuse fish life including angelfish, parrot fish, groupers, brown chromis, yellowtail snapper, trigger fish, trumpet fish, bluespotted cornet fish, turtles, lobsters and stingrays. Port Marie is a great site for night diving.

Tips for your Scuba Dive Holiday

On the beach, you will find a typical dive shop from Curacao with equipment for a scuba dive or for snorkeling.

You can access the dive site by shore or with a dive center by boat.

This dive is located on the West coast, off Port Marie beach and south of Cas Abao.

Your Review of Portomari Scuba Dive

Is Porto Mari one of the best dives in Curacao? Our visitors consider that the dive Porto Mari is ranked with the following numbers of stars compared to all the other scuba diving dives in Curacao:

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Diving Curacao Mushroom Forest

One of Curacao’s top dives, the Mushroom Forest was so named because of the many large coral heads of mountainous star coral that have been eroded at their base to resemble mushrooms. Divers consistently vote his site as the best in Curacao but do compare it with others if you can.

Dive Curacao Mushroom Forest, a diverse site for which you need to take time and have a good look in all the cracks and crannies. The coral heads are a riot of color: anemones, flower and brain corals, lobsters, moray eels, conchs, trunk fish, porcupine puffer fish, are just a few of the animals to be found.

There is a dive buoy that guides you to the diving site. The Mushroom Forest is a little beyond the buoy, while the Blue Room is a cave directly inshore from it. The Blue Room cave is only 20 feet deep with a huge entrance.

Tips for your Scuba Diving Trip

The sea floor is complex and the coral heads look similar and disorientating so take your compass or a local dive guide.

This is not a shore dive but you may contact Captain Good Life from Santa Cruz for an epic boat ride.

This dive is located on the Northwest coast, southwest of Santa Cruz, at the point south of Santu Pretu.

Your Review of the Mushroom Forest Scuba Dive

Is the Mushroom Forest and the Blue Room one of the best dives in Curacao? Our visitors consider that the dive Mushroom Forest is ranked with the following numbers of stars compared to all the other scuba diving dives in Curacao:

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Renaissance Curacao Resort User Rating

Located in Curacao’s capital city of Willemstad, in the heart of the Dutch Caribbean, the Renaissance Curacao Resort & Casino offers experiences and activities for any traveler seeking the ambiance of authentic Caribbean charm combined with European sophistication. Featuring a private beach club, this Curacao resort is built around the historic setting of the Rif Fort. In the midst of this uptown energy, the Renaissance Curacao Resort offers oceanfront comfort true to the Caribbean, creating a balanced blend of atmospheres. This area is home to Curacao’s most exclusive shopping and exciting nightlife.

Vote for all-inclusive Renaissance Curacao Resort by clicking on one of the stars below:

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One of the best Curacao resorts

The resort features the Carnaval Casino and some of the finest Curacao restaurants. This luxury resort is perfect for group travel to Curacao, with abundant space for meetings and special events. In addition, the property is ideal for destination weddings and romantic Curacao honeymoon vacations. Both vacationers and business travelers alike will find a memorable Curacao experience that is Uniquely Renaissance.

Renaissance Curacao Resort includes

This Renaissance resort in Curacao features 32,000 sq ft of private beach area at the Infinity Beach Club. From your accommodation in Curacao, have access to the most exclusive shopping area featuring restaurants, the Carnaval Casino & nightlife within the resort.

Accommodation details

Check-in and Check-out

• Check-in: 4:00 PM
• Check-out: 12:00 PM

Internet Access

• Public Areas: Wireless
• Guest Rooms: Wired
• Meeting Rooms: Wired, Wireless

Parking of Hotel in Curacao

• Complimentary on-site parking

Details of All Inclusive to Curacao

• 4 floors , 223 rooms , 14 suites
• 4 meeting rooms, 8,600 sq ft of total meeting space
• Recently Renovated Lobby
• Casino on-site
• This hotel has a smoke-free policy
• Pets are not allowed but service animals allowed for persons with disabilities
• AAA Diamonds: 4

Pricing and Bookings

Compare prices between Curacao All Inclusive Resorts and book your stay with our affiliate partner: Book It.

Curacao Resorts

Other Curacao resorts reviewed on the Curacao Island include:

• Breezes Curacao Resort
• Curacao Marriott Beach Resort

User Reviews for Renaissance Resort Curacao

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Marriott Curacao Resort User Rating

The Curacao Marriott Beach Resort & Emerald Casino captures the best of old-Amsterdam charm with sun-drenched warmth. This luxury Curacao hotel is located on Piscadera Bay, 15 minutes from Hato International Airport. With 6 oceanfront acres, this Caribbean beach resort offers stunning views and lush tropical gardens. Endless white-sand beaches, newly renovated pool facilities, rich culture and many outdoor activities make Curacao a popular wedding destination and vacation spot.

Vote for all-inclusive Marriott Curacao Resort by clicking on one of the stars below:

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All Inclusive in Curacao

The Curacao Marriott offers world class dining options such as Portofino, which specializes in international cuisine, and our new kosher kitchen. Gaming enthusiasts may wish to try their luck at our Caribbean beach hotel’s Emerald Casino. Guests can reserve complimentary transportation to downtown Willemstad twice a day via the front desk. The adjacent World Trade Center offers over 27,000 sq ft of space for meetings and events. An unforgettable Curacao vacation awaits you at the Curacao Marriott Beach Resort and Emerald Casino.

Your vacation package allows you to benefit from the following Curacao all inclusive opportunities:

• Luxury Curacao resort on private beachfront with reef only 20 ft. from shore
• Just 10 minutes from downtown and Hato International Airport
• Pool
• Numerous restaurants
• 5-Star PADI Dive and watersports center located by the beach on a natural coral reef
• New Kosher Kitchen open for all Curacao events

Included at your Curacao hotel

Fitness

• Fitness Center
• Swimming
• Marriott Beach (On-site)
• Seabreeze Pool with swim up bar
• Whirlpool
• Spa
• Health Club & Fitness Center Appointment required
• Golf
• Blue Bay Golf Course (5 miles)

Activities

• Biking trail (15 miles)
• Bowling (5 miles)
• Hiking
• Horseback riding (15 miles)
• Jet-skiing (0.3 miles)
• Jogging/fitness trail (0.5 miles)
• Kayaking
• Mountain biking, trail (20 miles)
• Sailing (8 miles)
• Sauna
• Scuba diving
• Snorkeling
• Squash (5 miles)
• Volleyball

Accommodation details

Check-in and Check-out

• Check-in: 4:00 PM
• Check-out: 11:00 AM

High-Speed Internet

• Public Areas: Wireless
• Guest Rooms: Wired
• Meeting Rooms: Wired, Wireless

Hotel Parking

• Complimentary on-site parking
• Complimentary off-site parking

Beach Resort Details

• 3 floors , 237 rooms , 10 suites
• 4 meeting rooms, 3,000 sq ft of total meeting space
• Pets not allowed. Service animals allowed for persons with disabilities

Address

Pricing and Reservations

Compare prices between Curacao All Inclusive Resorts and book your stay with our affiliate partner: Book It.

Curacao Resorts

Other Curacao resorts reviewed on the Curacao Island include:

• Breezes Curacao Resort
• Renaissance Curacao Resort

User Reviews

Once you have voted for the Marriott Curacao Beach Resort, add your comment below. You can vote for a review by clicking on the thumb up or down next to each comment.

The Curacao Island