Globacom Goes WAPping

By Segun Oruame, Editor.

Nigeria’s second national operator (SNO) Globacom has
announced plans to get its landline services on in
weeks. The fibre optic cabling of Ibadan to Lagos is
to be completed soon by equipment giant Siemens. This
would kick-start its fixed services and end market
perception that the SNO was unduly concentrating on
its mobile services.

Top company’s officials said in Lagos at a training
forum for IT journalists over the weekend that the
operator would by September 6, (three weeks from now)
unload GPRS/WAP services.

Globacom is a year old on the turf. The new service
blows the trumpet on Globacom’s one year of playing
for space in Nigeria’s fiery mobile sub-sector of some
4m subscribers. It also continues a tradition of
initiating innovative services since it joined the
turf a year ago.

Globacom share of the 4m mobile subscribers in the
sector is over a million indicating an impressive
growth averaging about 84,000 sign-ons per month. It
is still trailing heavily behind the MTN, which leads
the industry with over 2m subscribers.

But Globacom eyes are focused on capturing the mobile
and fixed markets – when it finally enters the
landline sub-sector in weeks. “You have not seen
anything yet. We are determine to lead the market with
innovative and quality service,” said Deepak Varma,
acting COO, who led other Globacom’s officials to the
quiet training venue at Akodo, at the outskirts of
Lagos.

Globacom had last year signed a major contract with
Siemens to enable its rollout of fixed and mobile
services across country. Several cities have since
been connected to its network as it expands services
to major cities and towns in geographical zones
outside of the South-West where it is headquartered.

More cities are to be opened up in the north and the
east, said Varma before September 6 when its GPRS/WAP
services would go live.

Globacom caused a stir when it rollout services last
year with a Per Second Billing (PSB) to win strong
market favour and incite market anger against its more
established rivals. It has since consolidated on that
favour to win more converts and is today regarded as
the fastest growing mobile network.

But there is still big work ahead for the SNO if it
must survive the unleash of equally dynamic players
particularly in the fixed sub-sector that it is set
explore.

There are over a million fixed lines from incumbent
Nitel, first national operator (FNO) and hordes of
private telecom operators (PTOs) fighting for space in
Africa’s fastest growing market of some 150 million
people. More…..

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