Glo, Huawei sign contract for Glo 2 submarine cable

Globacom’s Executive Director, Legal, Mrs. Gladys Talabi; Mr. Folu Aderibigbe of Globacom, and Deputy Managing Director, Huawei Technologies, Mr Li Shaowei, at a contract-signing ceremony between the two companies  on the construction of Glo 2, a multi-billion naira optic fibre submarine cable on Tuesday at  the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.

 Fully integrated telecommunications company, Globacom, has entered into agreement with Huawei for the laying of another trans-Atlantic submarine cable to complement Glo 1.

The second submarine cable will consolidate Globacom’s ambitious plan to comprehensively transform Nigeria’s ICT landscape.

Glo 2 will be laid along the Nigerian coast from Alpha Beach in Lagos where its precursor, Glo 1 has a landing station, extending to major cities in the southern part of the country. 

At a signing ceremony between Globacom and Huawei, at Eko Hotel, Victoria Island on Tuesday, Globacom’s Regional Director, Technical, Mr. Sanjib Roy, said the facility will enable ultra high capacity connection to the South-South Region and the offshore oil platforms and communities. 

Boniface Ogbonnaya  and Linda Nwagbo of Globacom; Deputy Managing Director, Huawei Technologies, Mr. Li Shaowei;  Augusta Nwoke and Chathapuram Anand Viswanathan of Globacom at a contract-signing ceremony between the two companies  on the construction of Glo 2, a multi-billion Naira optic fibre submarine cable on Tuesday in Lagos.

Mr. Roy said the new cable would boost telecommunications service delivery in the country by providing economic and social empowerment for the oil producing communities. 

The facility will provide high speed internet connectivity for the oil platforms and boost productivity and efficiency.

“Glo2 will be the first submarine cable in Nigeria to land outside Lagos as the five existing submarine cables only landed in Lagos. Glo 2 will have capacity of 12Terabit per second and will provide ultra-high speed connection to oil platforms and communities to empower data coverage and support Enterprise market growth in this part of Nigeria,” Mr Roy explained.

According to him, Glo 2 would be the first to provide dedicated submarine fibreoptic cable to oil platforms to support the growth of Nigerian Economy and allow Oil Communities to reduce their operational expenditure.

“It is also designed for further expansion southwards to Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Angola, among others,” said Mr. Roy. 

The new cable will be approximately 850 kilometres long and will be integrated with Globacom’s existing terrestrial Backbone Network to provide additional service redundancy and boost service quality especially in Abuja and other parts of the country, the Globacom official said. 

Giving more details of the cable, he said it would contain three fibre pairs. The first pair will connect Lagos directly to Southern part of Nigeria with terrestrial extension to other parts of the country for redundancy and maintenance purposes.  

The second will be equipped with eight switchable Branching Units (BUs) which will deliver high capacity to offshore oil stations and communities connected directly to BUs, while the third pair will be equipped with two (2) switchable Branching Units to deliver high capacity to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.

“Huawei is proud to partner with Globacom to build a revolutionary submarine cable using innovative and leading technology. We believe the cable would bring a new era of digitalization to Nigerian economy,” said Mr Li Beifang, Managing Director of Huawei Nigeria.