Posted by 9jabook.com on November 25, 2009 at 5:04am
Glo to launch broadband access service
A brand new revolution is in the offing in the Nigerian telecommunications industry as Globacom is now set to launch its Glo Broad Access service, which offers the convergence of advanced voice, advanced data and advanced video on one single wired line.
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With the introduction of this new service, Glo will be bringing Nigeria closer to the advanced nations that have long enjoyed the benefits of broadband services which include convergence, high speed internet and video and television on demand at very low cost.
The new service is expected to have a significant impact on the way Nigerians work, conduct business, pursue their education, obtain information and get entertained as it will allow subscribers to use the same dedicated Glo fixed line in their homes and offices for voice call, internet connection, video conferencing and cable television.
Glo Broad Access is anchored on Globacom’s state-of-the-art optical fibre cable (OFC) that connects over 40 cities in Nigeria and is reputed to be the largest OFC network not just in Nigeria but in Africa.
This network will enable users of Glo Broad Access to harness the power of instant connectivity, congestion-free traffic and high capacity for enormous volumes of voice, data and video as well as economy and affordability, which will lead to the overall economic development of the nation.
According to the Group Chief Operating Officer, Globacom, Mohamed Jameel, the service offerings from Glo Broad Access include landline telephony on IP/MPLS-enabled optic fibre for distortion-free clarity, 24/7 connectivity and stability of connection at a price that will put smiles on the faces of Nigerians.
“Apart from its affordability, the phone lines will also provide value-added services such as three-party conference call, alarm clock, call waiting and diversion, caller identity recognition (CLIR) and a host of other exciting features.
“The Glo prepaid fixed lines can be recharged using normal Glo mobile recharge cards which are available at Gloworld shops and almost at every street corner,” he said.
Jameel stated that other packages included in the service are video conferencing, which would help to reduce travel and thus enhance enterprise productivity, fast broadband internet which allows for interactive gaming, video streaming, high speed downloads and simultaneous ‘Talk & Surf’ on the connection.
“Glo Broad Access will also offer consumers their favourite local and foreign cable TV channels subject to agreement with broadcast right owners, using the same magical digital wire or dedicated Glo fixed line,” he said.
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Posted by 9jabook.com on September 11, 2009 at 3:09am
In this report, Efem Nkanga writes on the feat achieved by Globacom a few days ago, when its GLO-1 Submarine cable landed in Lagos and concludes that Nigerians are set to experience the benefits of available broadband capacity by the emergence of the cable.
The Nigerian telecoms industry, a few days ago recorded a milestone when, indigenous telecoms player and Second National Carrier, Globacom’ landed its Submarine Cable in Lagos.
The cable, which drained the company’s purse by a whopping $800 million dollars is the buzz in the sector today because it was done entirely alone by the Mike Adenuga led company. The company is known for its innovative style and has in the last six years of operations pioneered the introduction of several other innovative services in Nigeria including Per Second Billing, Mobile Internet, Blackberry, Vehicle Tracking, Voice SMS and In-flight Roaming.
The fact that the company, which came in six years ago after other players had had two years head start could achieve this has confounded friends and foes alike because it has gone down in history as the world's first submarine optic fibre cable to be built by a single individual company as opposed to the normal practice, where a consortium of players partner to build one. Sometimes nations even come together and partner to build one e.g., the popular SAT3 built by a consortium of 36 countries, including Nigeria.
Other such examples include the Eassy project, a project of a Consortium of regional incumbent telecom operators in East Africa at the cost $265 million with a target launch date of 2009. Another initiative is that of the profit association of the international satellite industry called Global VSAT Forum , a not-for-profit organisation that is working to double the number of earth station terminals operating in Africa by 2012. A worldwide Global body of firms are involved in the business of delivering advanced digital fixed satellite speed up development in Africa. The initiative plans to bring in more than 20 satellites which will be brought into service to connect Africa during the next five years. Aside from the satellites, complimentary capacity building will also be delivered to governments in Africa by the GVF and the “MaIN OnE” Fiber project of Main Street Technologies, which will interconnect countries on the Atlantic Coast from Morocco through to Angola with each other, and through Portugal to the rest of the world. All these projects which are expected to help Africa achieve maximum coverage are being done by a body of companies and countries partnering together. Globacom is the only one done by a single individual company.
The cable, 9,800km long stretching all the way from the United Kingdom across Mauritania, Morocco and 16 West African countries with dedicated extension to New York, was anchored at its Landing Station at Alpha Beach, Lekki, Lagos precisely on the morning of Saturday, the fifth of September 2009.
The Glo 1 cable will deliver transmission capacity that will radically change Nigeria and Africa's economic landscape by providing unprecedented high speed internet services and make telecom services much faster, more reliable and cheaper for consumers. The project was handled by Alcatel-Lucent, the world leader in submarine cable installation. The Intrepid, the ship which brought the Glo 1 cable has left for Accra, Ghana to complete the Phase One of the installation in other West African countries including Senegal and Cote D'Ivoire. The landing of Glo 1 in Ghana will also boost the preparation for the nationwide launch of Glo Mobile Ghana.
Glo also said that the phase 2 of the submarine cable project will connect South Africa through Angola.
The revolution of mobile technology especially in Nigeria has spawned successes driven largely by competition, but the irony of this huge success is that while the mobile arm is experiencing galloping growth, with accessible access across the length and breadth of the country including the urban and rural areas, the area of Broadband and Internet access has not kept pace with this growth and has been relegated to the background. Nigeria’s internet penetration is still a dismal 4 per cent compared to the 97 per cent access recorded in the country in the area of mobile technology. With Bandwidth demand rising across the African continent by 19 per cent in the 2001, 28 per cent in 2002 and 37 per cent in 2003, Africa and Nigeria needs to have more of such increases.
This is why the move of Globacom, to enable adequate broadband through its GLO-1 for West Africa project is a welcome development. Globacom which has shown its financial muscle, capacity and foresight through its recent foray into the Republic of Benin to provide mobile technology services in that country. The building of an undersea fibre optic cable from the United Kingdom to Nigeria is the dawn of an era that many hope will ensure the spread of broadband across the country.
The GLO-1 project which has landed in Lagos was said to have experienced some challenges due to lack of political co-operation for landing rights etc. But despite all the challenges, the cable has landed and Globacom is said to be planning to offer its services at a very affordable rate that will be below the current SAT3 rates, it’s a move many are looking forward to and a welcome development that will help Nigeria’s economy. Nigerians have not forgotten the last SAT 3 outage which crippled the nation for almost two weeks and Globacom’s foresight is commendable and stakeholders have expressed the hope that arrival of GLO -1 will help ensure that such is never experienced by the country again. The current scenario, where West African countries presently have a high dependability on satellite based operators for fulfilling their bandwidth requirements and the fact that bandwidth providers are retailing bandwidth they procure in bulk, which invariably is very expensive is expected to be solved by the the entrance of GLO-1. Apart from the fact that the Widening Digital divide between Nigeria, Africa and the rest of the World will be solved, price to value issues as well as issues of reliability and availability issues on the side of the only provider of Capacity between Nigeria and the rest of the World will become a thing of the past. Globacom's Group Executive Director, Mr. Paddy Adenuga said Glo-1's current and ultimate capacity is enough to cater to the required broadband capacity of Nigeria for at least the next 15 to 20 years. Glo 1 has a current capacity of 640Gigabit per second and an ultimate capacity of 2.5 Terabit per second. Adenuga said, ”Glo 1 will provide the needed opportunity for West African countries and indeed Africa to leap forward economically through an excellent communication network and a cost-effective voice, data, video and e-commerce services across Africa, Europe and the rest of the world". He added that “The facility will provide the most comprehensive international communication services on the continent to bridge the digital divide between Africa and the rest of the World,’ he added.
Adenuga said Glo 1 has 99.9 per cent up time reliability, world-class long distance voice, video and data communication services for African customers, adding that the cable will support the large bandwidth requirements of direct consumers and other service providers.
He said the cable will free up resources for other forms of investments which governments and business developments need through broad market coverage at high capacity and at a fraction of cost and time.
Glo 1 will also facilitate foreign investment and employment opportunities in the sub region, he stated.
He emphasized that a new dawn has arrived for Nigerians because ‘’Glo 1 will stimulate a new era of prosperity in the sub-continent,” said Adenuga who added that the successful delivery of the cable has shown that Globacom has an awesome capacity to deliver complex projects.
Dwelling on Glo 1's specific benefits to Nigerians in particular and Africans in general, Adenuga said the cable will facilitate teleconferencing, distance learning, disaster recovery and telemedicine among several other benefits for the people.
“The facility will aid on-line diagnosis and video conferencing during surgery and research, while distance learning will be made easy by enabling the participation of a class of students and lecturers from different parts of the world in real time,” he explained.
Globacom and Alcatel-Lucent officials also disclosed that the facility will be live in about six weeks when all the connections have been effected.
Commenting on the Submarine cable while it was still being awaited in Lagos, the Group Chief Operating Officer, Globacom, Jameel Mohammed explained the seeming delay in Glo-1’s arrival. He disclosed that implementing submarine cable projects, particularly one spanning about 10,000 km from London to Lagos is an initiative that usually takes between two to two and a half years to complete.
Furthermore, he said that because the cable passed through various territorial waters and jurisdictions of several African countries, Globacom had to contend with lengthy approval processes.“We needed so much permission from all those countries to pass the cable through their territorial waters. We needed approval from security agencies, approvals from oil companies and from various bodies”, he said.
Gleefully announcing the imminent change that will hit the sector, Mohammed stated that the Glo 1 would deliver transmission capacity that would radically change Nigeria and West Africa's economic landscape. Emphasizing that Glo-1 was another milestone in the history of Nigeria’s communications industry, he added that the cable would provide unprecedented high speed internet services and make telecom services much faster, more reliable and cheaper for consumers. This information from Mohammed is a good one because the problem of bandwidth is a problem that the nation had been grappling with for a long time.
Glo 1 is expected to provide the needed Opportunity for West African Countries and indeed Africa to leap forward economically through an excellent Communication network and a Cost effective voice, data, video and e-commerce services across Africa, Europe and rest of the world. It is also expected to enable the most comprehensive international communication services on the continent to bridge the digital divide between Nigeria/Africa and the Rest of the World. Paddy Adenuga pledged that it will offer 99.9 per cent up time reliability, World-class long distance voice, video and data communication services to the African customer. This is in addition to high speed and reliable data, voice and video connectivity to meet and support the large bandwidth requirements of direct consumers and other service providers. Amongst all other benefits of Glo-1 enumerated by Adenuga include free resources for other forms of investments, governments and business development needs through broad market coverage at high capacity and at a fraction of cost and time, as well as long term business Plans regarding communication strategies, and the facilitation of foreign investment and employment opportunities for Nigerians.
No doubt, Glo- will help assuage Nigerians hungry for Broadband Access. The benefits derived from mobile technology has whetted the appetite of the people for more. The benefits of Broadband everywhere in the country will accelerate development to unquantifiable levels. It will give a boost to productivity as people will be able to achieve more quickly and efficiently. In the area of medicine, the advantages of telemedicine newly introduced into the country will be consolidated for the benefits of rural folks. Economic benefits would accrue, allowing businesses to thrive as new frontiers are conquered. In the area of Education, elearning programmes would be easier to support. Socially, beneficial interactions will be enabled and a flexible working environment will make for a more productive and efficient workforce that will translate to a more vibrant economy.
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