Oluchi Chibuzor
Telecommunication subscribers in Nigeria and some other countries in Africa were thrown into panic few days ago, following a major cut in submarine cables.
Already, reports have indicated that the disruption may persist for up to three weeks, which was expected to pose challenge to some internet users in Nigeria and some other West and South African countries due to the damage to the international underwater cables. The outage impacted banks and telecommunications organisations that depend on the impacted cables for internet services.
Major undersea cables close to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, were reportedly damaged, and this caused internet outages in West and South African nations. The West Africa Cable System (WACS), the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, and SAT3 were the undersea cables that have been impacted.
In fact, one of the undersea cable companies affected by the service disruptions, MainOne, disclosed in a recent statement that the situation might persist for two to three weeks for the problem to be fixed.
The company had explained that investigations revealed that the fault came from an external incident that resulted in a cut on the submarine cable system in the ocean.
MainOne said the rectification of the fault involves identifying and assigning a vessel to, “retrieve the necessary spares required for repair, and then sail to the fault location to conduct the repair work. This process might take one to two weeks for repairs while about two to three weeks of transit time may be required for the vessel to pick up the spares and travel from Europe to West Africa once the vessel is mobilised.”
However, in the midst of all the confusion, Globacom subscribers have continued to enjoy uninterrupted internet connection and other services as they were not affected by the interruption.
The development is a reflection of the strength and capacity of the telco, which has made significant investment in infrastructure.
This was made possible due to the foresight of a man who entered the telecommunications industry and became a leading light with a list of firsts – Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr, the founder and Chairman of Globacom.
Precisely, Glo-1, a submarine communications cable which is owned by Globacom, the largest provider of digital services in Nigeria, was untouched by the damage and is still running as usual.
Glo-1 powers financial institutions, internet service providers and data consumers and all organisations that are Globacom’s subscribers have continued to carry on with business as usual despite the breakdown of other telcos and internet services producers.
Industry observers were of the view that Glo-1 International Submarine Cable’s resilient construction and durability were the reasons the damage did not compromise the cable.
The telco was the only company among its peers that invested over $250 million to install its own submarine cables from Nigeria to Europe.
Glo-1 or Globacom Main 1 is a submarine fiber optic cable that rans from Nigeria to Europe.
Globacom was the first African telecom company to build an intercontinental submarine cable, the Glo 1 cable, which ran from Bude, a seaside rural town in north Cornwall, England and traversed seventeen countries, including Ghana, before terminating in Nigeria, findings showed. The 9,800-km-long cable with 169 repeaters originates from Bude in the UK and branches out at Osu landing station, Accra, Ghana, and terminates at Alpha Beach landing station, Lagos.
By going from Europe to the West Coast of Africa, the company avoided the more turbulent but cheaper to maintain Middle-East and North Africa region.
In 2010, Globacom berthed Glo1 submarine cable in Nigeria, and further improved broadband internet services across the country.
With Glo-1, internet access has become easily affordable. Anybody who has an internet-enabled phone can afford data.
In addition to boosting the provision of services to telecom end users, Globacom provided the much- needed connectivity to critical sectors of the economy such as oil and gas, manufacturing, banking, commerce, education and health, among others.
Several multinational companies, including telecom operators and internet service providers (ISPs), are on Glo 1.
Since the launch of Glo-1, the infrastructure has metamorphosed into a leading end-to-end connectivity solutions provider across the globe.
The undersea cable from the United Kingdom to Nigeria has the lowest latency in the market. With nationwide terrestrial fiber coverage and presence in all data centers, it boasts a major advantage very few possess in the market.
The main distinction between Glo-1 and other undersea cable operators is that the former addresses market requirements across all spectrums, that is, international cable plus national fiber, last mile fiber connectivity using multiple fiber routes for redundancy up to any major data center within Nigeria.
Glo-1 has also acted as the catalyst in propagating broadband penetration in Nigeria as well as an enabler for enterprise customers to provide world class connectivity to all their offices and factories across Nigeria. Many cloud computing companies who cater to the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMES) have set up shop within the Glo partnered data centers.
Indeed, it is on record that Globacom pioneered the telecommunication revolution that ensured that GSM services was not only democratised in Nigeria, but was made available and affordable to everyone in Nigeria and beyond and the company has continued to maintain its leadership positon by delivering value to Nigerians as a truly indigenous outfit.
Glo was the first company to launch operations on per-second billing. It pioneered the billing system in Nigeria in 2003, even when older networks said it was impossible, thereby empowering millions of Nigerians. Courtesy of Glo, telephone users in Nigeria now pay just for actual time spent on the phone. The demystification of the SIM card acquisition and introduction of the per-second billing not only led to the exponential growth of Globacom’s customer base, but the innovative moves also ensured millions of Nigerians have access to telecommunication, a move which significantly boosted Nigeria’s economy.
In its bid to empower the greatest number of Nigerians, Globacom cancelled the N50 per minute charge for calls by crashing the tariff to as low as one kobo (N0.10) per second. The company is no doubt a trailblazer in launching a slew of futuristic products and services. For instance, it also recorded another milestone as the first network in Nigeria to launch the 2.5G GPRS technology, thus enabling multimedia convergence. This made it possible for subscribers to share pictures, audio and video for the first time in Nigeria.
Globacom facilitated international SMS connectivity to over 804 networks in 174 countries, BlackBerry solutions, international prepaid roaming, voice SMS, personal ringback tunes, and Magicplus––a comprehensive bouquet of SIM-based information services. The network also pioneered Blackberry services, which supported push-button email, mobile telephone and other wireless information services. It was also the first to launch the 4G/LTE technology nationwide, which boosted ultra-fast and reliable data service on the network.
In line with its pan-African vision, Glo has also extended operations to the Benin Republic and Ghana, with a footprint in other countries across the world. While it established its footprint across the African telecommunication landscape, Globacom also sought to affirm its repute as an advocate of financial inclusion on the homefront. Following its remarkable foray into the financial services sector, the company launched Globacom’s MoneyMaster PSB. This underlines its commitment to deepening financial inclusion in the country.
Prior to its financial inclusivity venture, Globacom had pioneered a lot of innovations in the Nigerian telecommunication sector, including Mobile Banking, first to launch Mobile internet service, pioneered Vehicle tracking; first to Launch Prepaid Roaming, and first to launch In-Flight Roaming.
In recent years, Globacom has played a major role in the country’s march to a digital future by introducing a range of customised and community-driven voice and data connectivity solutions that help to manage complex networking systems. Globacom also provides secured and virtualised IT solutions such as e-health, smart cognitive learning, smart energy, industrial IoT, and cloud applications.
In line with its pan-African vision, Glo has also extended operations to the Benin Republic and Ghana, with a footprint in other countries across the world. While it established its footprint across the African telecommunication landscape, Globacom also sought to affirm its repute as an advocate of financial inclusion on the homefront. Following its remarkable foray into the financial services sector, the company has emerged as the third telecoms company to throw its hat in the Payment Service Bank ring with the launch of Globacom’s MoneyMaster PSB. This underlines its commitment to deepening financial inclusion in the country.
Since it began operations in 2003, Globacom has made home-grown stars from the entertainment industry the faces (ambassadors) of its brand while making them worth their popularity in affluence and influence. At a time when entertainers were being paid peanuts for their artistry, Globacom upped the ante, dishing out millions of naira to their ambassadors and helping them to live the life they only see in the movies or on MTV.
Clearly, Globacom as a truly Nigerian company is wholly committed to the development of the country and has continued to display this with the quality of it service offerings.
