Globacom invests $600m in infrastructure but reschedules launch of mobile network in Ghana

Glo Mobile Ghana Limited has so far invested $600 million in infrastructure and technical support services to enhance quality mobile service delivery in Ghana and says it is technically ready to launch its operations in Ghana.

However, anxious Ghanaians waiting to have a feel of the much-talked-about Glo network will now have to wait  as Globacom Ghana Limited has rescheduled its launch in Ghana. The company announced today as its launching date but has called it off.

The postponement, according to the company, was as a result of logistics constraints beyond its control.

Speaking to the media in Accra Wednesday, Mr Bode Opeseitan, the Director of Events and Special Promotions of Globacom, stated that the delay was not deliberate.

“Ghanaians have been waiting for us and we are doing a great job, it is not a joke to build one thousand six hundred base stations because we don’t intend to be a regional network but a national telecom operator from day one.”

He, could, however, not give a definite date on which the company would launch its operations in the country but gave an assurance that “it will be very soon”.

“Technically, we are ready to take off through making or receiving calls but we want to get everything right.”

Mr Opeseitan said the company had taken notice of the recent action of the National Communication Authority, which fined some of the telecommunications companies in the country for poor performance, and was working to give Ghanaians a premium service.

Responding to concerns that the rescheduling of the launch could overstretch the heightened expectation of Ghanaians, a situation which could work against the company, he said “nobody is interested in launching Glo than ourselves. Every investor needs to recoup its investment, we just want to get it right”.

Officials of the company led journalists to tour its ultra-modern call centre at Spintex in Accra which has the capacity to handle 10 million customers and will operate in four languages — English, Twi, Ga and Hausa.

The company is at the moment running tests across the country from the call centre in preparation for its full operation in the country.

“We have distributed SIM cards to our agents in the 10 regions who are calling the call centre not only as part of testing the system but also giving hands-on practical experience to persons manning the call centre,” Mr Alfred Arenyeka, Head of Customer Care, told the Daily Graphic.

The call centre, he said, was the interface between the company and customers, a testimony that quality assurance was a major concern for the company.

Similarly, the company will also open 26 Glo World shops, one-stop shops of the company, across the country to handle customer care.

Glo, which received its licence to operate in Ghana in 2008,  derives much of its network strength from the massive backbone support it receives from Glo 1, the high capacity submarine cable which berthed in Ghana in 2009 and was inaugurated last April.

The Glo 1 fibre optic cable is the first individually owned submarine cable in Africa and the only such facility connecting West Africa to the United Kingdom.

Source: Daily Graphic