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Globacom Invests $3bn in Country

This Day
Efem Nkanga
17 October 2007

Telecommunication giants, Globacom has invested over $3 billion in the past four years in delivering telecommunication services in Nigeria. Mr Mohammed Jameel, Globacom Chief Operating Officer, who disclosed this in a news briefing in Lagos, also said Globacom has hit a subscriber base of 15 million with over 12 million active subscriber-base. With this development, Globacom has established its second position in the Nigerian market, holding strongly to over 35 percent share of the entire Nigerian subscriber market and warming up to take over market leadership in the shortest possible time.

The company also announced that at its current growth rate, it will soon hit 18 million subscribers and that will confer on it market leadership of the telecom sector in Nigeria in terms of subscriber base.

Jameel said "telecoms investment keeps growing, as the network expands, more funds will be invested in the goal of Globacom to make the network number one in the country. Jameel also reiterated that Globacom has acquired a new numbering 0705 plan, because it has exhausted its 0805 and 0807 numbering plan with a goal to reach 30 million subscriber level in the next 12 months.

In the light of this, he said, the telecom firm is adding 125 to its 150 base stations across the country on a monthly basis, to add more capacity to its network in anticipation of the expected growth. He said Globacom in the last four months has been building capacity through building new fibre and installing switches, all in a bid to enable capacity.

He added that Globacom would have installed additional 750 base stations to its 3000 existing stations by the end of the year. Mr. Yinka Akande, of Globacom in a presentation at the event also added that to ensure steady development of the network, Globacom recently signed a US $1 billion equipment supply agreement with Alcatel of France and Huawei ofChina, covering Mobile , Fixed and Submarine Optical Fibre Cable linking Nigeria and the United Kingdom , with a dedicated link to the US .

On the Gateway business, Globacom declared that it is one of the largest carriers of voice traffic inAfrica carrying over 2 billion international minutes annually. At the local scene, Glo is the gateway for most network operators in Nigeria and the surrounding African countries and has built strategic partnerships with 43 Tier One Carriers (35 TDM and 8 VoIP) with a total of 618 E1s. Telcos likeAT&T, BT, France Telecom, Sprint use Glo to connect to their customers in Africa .

Glo's international roaming services involve 193 networks in 98 countries and provide services on voice, SMS, GPRS roaming and BlackBerry services. It also provides bulk sale of bandwidth and offers access to 804 networks in 174 countries via International SMS. Akande also stated that Glo is the first operator in West Africa to launch Gateway switches outside of Africa to carry International Voice Traffic and this accounts for its easy connection to all the big time players like BT, FT, MCI, Belgacom, ARBINET, etc.

Apart from the UK, Glo has also established points of presence in France , Germany and the US with five state-of-the-art Gateway switches in Nigeria- three in Lagosand one each in Abuja and Port Harcourt . It also plans additional Points of Presence in Singapore , Hong Kong , UAE and Australia . The company says its submarine cable has reached Senegal from UK and work will soon begin on the Lagos Senegal route to link both cables.

Globacom also announced the completion of two additional customer care centers which will house 600 desks each in addition to the 700 customer care desks presently working in the first centre and will revolutionize customer service in Africa . According to Akande, the customer care centre will be the largest in Africa, receiving over 150,000 inbound calls per day and housing sophisticated CRM capturing customer interaction.

Speaking on the new number range, Mr. Akande, said that "with our 0807 numbering plan having been exhausted and in order to effectively provide for the continued phenomenal growth on Africa 's fastest growing network, the acquisition of another numbering plan to cope with this growth has become inevitable." Akande, said the introduction of a new number series, 0705, underscored Nigerians' growing preference for Globacom as the network of choice in terms of offerings, network reliability and subscriber appreciation.

Globacom's introduction of the new 0705 number range followed the exhaustion of the 0805 and the 0807 number series. The new platform, the company said, gives millions of subscribers wishing to join the Glo network the opportunity to be accommodated. It has capacity for 10 million subscribers. Akande reiterated that Globacom's growth in Nigeria has been phenomenal. Starting two years behind other operators in Nigeria , the network has become the fastest growing in Africa and the Middle East region and is the third fastest growing network in the world. In 2006, alone, Globacom added six million subscribers to its network.

Copyright © 2007 This Day

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May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm