Glo explains Senegalese license, launches VSMS

Despite the alleged maltreatment in Ghana, the second national telecommunications operator, Globacom, weekend, explained its reason for obtaining an operational license in Senegal.

A press statement from Globacom’s corporate communications department, indicated that its latest license was finalised with the endorsement of dotted lines by the government of Senegal, through the Ministers of Finance and Telecommunications.

According to the press statement, Globacom’s chairman, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr. was quoted as saying that the license would afford the telecommunications giant to offer world class telecom services to the government and people of Senegal.

Equally, the Senegalese licence will also allow Globacom to land its gigantic trans-Atlantic submarine cable, Glo 1 in the West African country with opportunities to extend the infrastructure to Mali.

This is in addition to giving Globacom the right to carry traffic for major operators, the government and wholesale customers.

“With this development, the people of Senegal have been positioned to be part of the telecommunications revolution which Globacom is bringing to Africa,” he said, noting that Glo 1 which is set to commence commercial services soon would deliver transmission capacity to offer unprecedented high speed internet and broad band services as well as make telecom services much faster, more reliable and cheaper for consumers on the continent.

Adenuga pointed out that with the Senegalese licence, Glo would be able to provide international carrier services for telecom operators in the country. The company which has gateway switches outside the continent is currently a major player in the global telecommunication industry.

Globacom said the new license gives impetus to the network’s desire to provide the needed opportunity for the African continent to leap forward economically through an excellent communication network and a cost-effective voice, data, video and e-commerce services.

“In line with our vision, Glo will continue to play a major role in stimulating a new era of prosperity in the sub-continent and build facilities that will offer Africa advanced telecom services such as teleconferencing, distance learning, disaster recovery, telemedicine, on-line diagnosis and video conferencing during surgery and research,” he asserted.

Emphasising that Globacom’s infrastructure would be deployed to improve on call completion to subscribers’ handsets, reduce call failure rate as well as the cost of international calls not only in Senegal but across all the markets where it operates.

ITRealms Online recalls that apart from Nigeria, Globacom which started commercial service in August 2003, has operating licenses Ghana, Benin Republic and Cote d’Ivoire.

Meanwhile, Glo Mobile has extended its Voice Short Messaging Service (voice-SMS) to other networks.

With this development, Glo subscribers could send voice SMS to subscribers of other networks, which hitherto was only available on Glo network.

Glo Mobile had in February, 2006, launched the service which allows subscribers to record and sends a voice message to a recipient.

It is a “talk” and “listen” messaging alternative to the regular “type” and “read” service provided by short messaging service (SMS).

Globacom’s Head, Value Added Services, Samson Isa, said the service was extended to other networks in order to give Glo subscribers more opportunity to enjoy its benefits.

“Voice SMS enables the user to add a personal touch to his message by recording his own voice, in his own language and sending it to a recipient who in turn is able to listen to the voice of the sender,” he said.

He underscored the fact that with the conventional SMS, a subscriber ‘types’ and ‘sends’ his text message which is read at the receiving end, while the Glo Voice-SMS allows the user to ‘dial’, ‘talk’ and ‘send’ the recorded voice message which is listened to by the receiver,” Isa said.

“Glo Voice-SMS is one more demonstration of our commitment to meeting the changing needs of our customers. It adds a fun dimension to short messaging as it has the advantage of conveying the sender’s mood, passion and emotion along with the voice message, which the conventional SMS does not do,” he said.

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