Glo-1 Submarine Cable Boosts West African Broadband
The 9,800 km Glo-1 fiber optic submarine cable made its landing over the weekend at Alfa Beach in Lagos, Nigeria. The cable originates in England and connects Nigeria to the UK, Spain, Portugal and the rest of West Africa with 16 branching units to cities along its route. The cable is expected to drive down broadband costs and provide faster and more robust connectivity for voice, data and video services. The technology sector in West Africa stands to benefit from Glo-1 as companies will be able to communicate more easily with clients and partners overseas. It equally holds promise to open Internet access to individuals and small businesses who’ve been unable to afford connections of their own.
Glo-1 has a current capacity of 640 gigabits per second and an ultimate capacity of 2.5 terabits per second. Until now, West Africa had access to only one submarine fiber optic cable: the SAT-3, owned primarily by Telkom Limited, a South African telecommunications provider, and controlled by a consortium of national telco operators. Those without access to the SAT-3 cable were forced to use expensive and slow satellite links. Glo-1 is unique as it’s the first submarine cable owned by a single telecommunications company, Nigeria’s Globacom Limited.
The main landing points of the cable are from Bude, England (in Cornwall) via Vigo, Spain; Sesimbra, Portugal; Accra, Ghana; Casablanca, Morocco; Dakar, Senegal; Nouakchott, Mauritania; and, finally Lagos, Nigeria. The Glo-1 will provide excess bandwidth to all the cities connected to the cable after the system is lit up.
People like Adenuga are few in this world God bless you
People like Adenuga are few in this world God bless you
This will benefit many concerns both private and public. Most importantly it will permit West Africans to now utilize communication where as they were not able before. Lets see them set their floor standards at 5G and up and not enter the game playing catch up.