GLO-1 Breaks Nitel SAT-3’s Monopoly

Oluwaseun Ayantokun, Lagos - 07.09.2009

HISTORY was made in Nigeria at the weekend as officials of Alcatel Lucent handed over the Lagos end of Glo 1, the 9,800 km long submarine cable capable of carrying data and internet traffic between Nigeria and the rest of the world at a phenomenal speed, to officials of Globacom.

The undersea cable with a current capacity of 640 giga bytes per second and final capacity of 2.5 terabits per second, practically breaks the monopoly of NITEL’s 120 giga bytes per second SAT 3, providing international connectivity from Lagos to the UK and the US, the world’s two major data hubs.

This thus offers a better solution to the problem of unmet high demand for bandwidth in the country and other parts of West Africa.

Nigeria, which spends about N100 billion annually on importation of bandwidth dispensed mostly through satellite devices that are not free from natural interferences, and other West African countries have hitherto been making do with the limited capacity of the SAT 3 cable.

In electronic communication, bandwidth is the width of the range of frequencies that an electronic signal uses on a given transmission medium.

Speaking at a press conference at Mike Adenuga Towers, Victoria Island, Lagos, after the handing over of the cable, Mr. Adewale Sangowanwa, Executive Director, Human Resources, Globacom, said the cable of the 32 STM 64 type had virtual infinite capacity.

“Therefore offers sufficient capacity for traffic for the Globacom’s mobile, fixed, and internet telecommunication services and all other operators in West Africa that come for leasing.

“All over the world no company or country has ever single-handedly executed this kind of project. It has been consortiums and teams of countries but this is what Globacom, a Nigerian company, has done.”

Mr. Ibrahim Fadipe, Head, Glo Gateway, said Nigerians would begin to harvest the dividends of the project in six weeks time when it would be commercially launched.

Stating that it offered 99.9 per cent up time reliability, Mr. Kayode Adebiyi, Project Manager, Glo 1, Globacom, said what the development meant was world-class long distance voice, video and high speed data communication services to the African customer.

“It means economic leap, more job opportunities in West Africa, efficient and effective telemedicine, e-learning, e-banking, telecommunication, disaster management and more,” he explained.

Mr. Peter Schubert, Senior General Manager, Alcatel-Lucent, described the achievement as remarkable, stating that the cable was enough to cater for all operators that came for it.

According to Mr. Suren Christensen, Senior Project Manager, Marine, Alcatel-Lucent, the cable with at least a 25-year lifespan, would have been delivered earlier than now if not for various conditions that had to be met in the many countries where it had branching units.[url][url]http://tribune.com.ng/07092009/news/news4.html

was abt to say d same thing

good work glo. but isn't it too early to conclude which is better?

going by the details that we know about it, it should easily shrug off all potential competitors but given the nigerian factor in all things related to nigeria. it might end up being slower than dial up starcomms,
i keep my fingers crossed till further notice about it.

please when can we start using it and how much will it cost also.

9ice 1
been expecting this,

I cant wait for it to get commercial,but like SAT 3 ,would it be available outside of lagos, abuja and port harcourt?

Congratulations Glo

Just make sure the last mile deployment to consumers is hitch-free, as that often is the case with other fiber solutions in Nigeria.

the koko be say how much will it cost?

what does all this translate into in terms of download speed for my laptop???,  i currently get 10kb on dial up. someone tell me

yeah,this is really a good news.i never thought that glo would finish that project,but i guess am wrong.we are really suffering poor internet connectivity so interested parties should get things started.internet providers,time to switch over!.

Lets hope that the militants will not go under water to sabotage this laudable project.

Where is Dora?

very nice, i'll go and look for my glo sim and wait

Up Glo, Up Naija. I think its about time I get a Glo line.

thats a nice start, but since most houses in Lagos are not planned, then I guess its only for the rich ones, like those that stays in d vgc area, I hope the middle class ones dat stays around the low class citizen can enjoy this benefit too,  Here in malaysia a broadband cable runs into every house, but its left for u to subscribe or not,  even a vacant land has own point for broadband communication,  So will it be like this too in Naija? Just ma question o!

plz, which one is Main One cable?