Glo clocks 17, assures subscribers of QoS

On August 29, Nigeria’s national operator, Globacom will be 17 years in the country’s telecommunications industry.

The telecommunications firm, owned by business mogul, Chief Mike Adenuga Jr, has remained consistent. Today, Nigeria can boast of 286.4 million connected lines, out of which 196.4 million are active. Going by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) statistics as at June, Globacom has 52.6 million subscribers, which is 26.82 per cent market share. The telecommunications firm can also lay claims to having 37.9 million of the 143.3 million Internet users in the country.

While Internet penetration is the population of the percentage of people that are connected to the Internet through various devices like mobile phones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers, Globacom subscribers are getting online via various technology platforms including the GSM, Fixed Wire and VoIP.

Indeed, since it rolled out services in 2003, Globacom, has consistently brought innovation, quality service delivery and benefits to its subscribers.

The firm demonstrated its intention to be a big player on the continent, right from the start, with a telling vision statement, “Building Africa’s biggest and best telecommunications network.”

Its mission statement was equally ambitious: “To be the largest, most successful entertainment, information and telecommunications solutions provider in Nigeria and Africa.”

The two statements were fashioned in the image of the company’s Chairman and Founder, Adenuga, Jr. Although a publicity-shy billionaire, his business accomplishments in virtually every critical sector of the economy are visible. He is known to think and dream big – a very tenacious and dogged entrepreneur, who likes to grow his businesses to be the best in the sectors he operates in.

Industry’s Game Changer
Globacom earned the namewhen it launched operations on Per Second Billing, which the older networks said was not possible. In doing that, Globacom made history as the first network in Africa to launch on per second billing platform. Its Chairman, Adenuga, became known as ‘Mr. Per Second’. The company became a household name in Nigeria and, within nine months, it made history as the first network to amass a million subscribers in that space of time.

It also crashed the cost of SIM card from N25, 000 to N200 and reduced call tariff from N50 a minute to as low as five kobo per second. The company thus ensured massive telephone penetration in Nigeria as millions of Nigerians who hitherto had no access to telephone services were able to own handsets. This earned it praises from the International Telecommunication Union, an agency of the United Nations, which commended it for “playing a critical role in the revolution in Nigeria’s telecommunications industry.” Globacom also became known as the innovator in the industry with the launch of Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), mobile banking, mobile Internet, vehicle tracking, prepaid roaming, in-flight roaming, Blackberry services, among others.

Technological Revolution
Glo was the first operator in Africa to launch its operations on the 2.5G network which enabled the convergence of voice, data and multimedia technologies.

The introduction of the 3G Plus technology marked the second time that Globacom pioneered the latest transmission network in Nigeria, having introduced the 2.5G technology at launch in 2003 when other operators were running on the 2G platform.

Globacom lived up to tradition when it became the first operator to launch a nationwide 4G-LTE coverage in Nigeria, thus availing its subscribers enhanced data transfer rates, unmatched mobile broadband experience and high data speeds and reliability. It has successfully done a test-run of its pilot 5G technologies in readiness for the ‘Big Data’ and IoT deployment.

Globacom has also contributed to boosting broadband connectivity in Nigeria by building and launching an international submarine cable, Glo 1. It was the first time a company would single-handedly implement such a massive undersea project in Africa. In addition to boosting the provision of services to telecom end users, the facility is currently providing the much needed connectivity to vital sectors of the economy such as oil and gas, manufacturing, banking, commerce, education and health, among others.

The Glo 1 submarine cable is complemented by the most extensive fibre optic backbone across Nigeria. The facility was built to further enhance voice and data transmission for mobile and fixed telephone operations in the country.

Digital solutions leader
Globacom has in recent years played a major role in the country’s march to a digital future. It introduced a range of customized and community-driven voice and data connectivity solutions which help to manage complex networking systems. Globacom also provides secured as well as verticalized IT solutions such as E-Health, Smart Cognitive Learning, Smart Energy, Industrial IoT and Cloud Applications. These solutions are particularly useful for collaborations, device management, workgroup storage, information security, among others.

Globacom’s fixed connectivity and voice products, such as Boost and Next Generation Bandwidth-on-Demand connectivity, SIP-based voice trunk and telephony, further enhance the company’s capacity to deliver advanced connectivity and fixed voice solutions to medium and large enterprises, large wholesale carriers and ISPs in Nigeria and Africa.

Fulfilling a Brand Promise
Starting with the pay-off line, “Glo with Pride” at launch in 2003, Glo promoted and imbued a sense of pride in every Nigerian by providing a telecommunications network, which offered Nigerians the platform to succeed in different fields of endeavour.

The company later followed it up with “Rule your World”, a message of empowerment that helped build confidence in Nigerians that they can achieve their dreams, rule their world and be the best that they want to be.

To mark its 10th Anniversary, Glo unveiled the strap line, “Unlimited”, which was meant to reaffirm the Glo brand promise to its various stakeholders as Glo journeys into its next 10 years of operation. The new strap line heralded a brave new world, a world in which subscribers and other stakeholders could achieve anything at all if they believed in themselves.

Contribution to the growth of Nigeria’s GDP
In the first quarter of 2020, the telecoms industry contributed 10.88 per cent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, compared to less than 1% in 2003 before Globacom started business. The remarkable growth came from the four major operators, one of which is Globacom. The company currently has close to 4000 direct employees, and has also created thousands of jobs in indirect employment through the value chain – distributorship, suppliers of physical goods and services such as building of network infrastructure, advertising and media.

But subscribers demand improved services
While appreciating the several innovations Globacom has brought to the Nigerian telecoms space, among which include the crashing of voice and data prices, poverty-alleviation programmes and life-impacting promos, subscribers are demanding improved services, and further expansion to areas yet uncovered in the country.

A subscriber, Kehinde Olatunji, praised Globacom, “but they need to do more. We cannot say a child of 17 years is small again, we need their services stable and strong.”

Another user, Chinedu Okafor, an architect, who has been a Globacom subscriber for a decade now, said: “they need to further crash data price for Nigerians, and above all, we need avery strong signal to enjoy some of the freebies.”