The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Glo

  • Glo-sponsored African Voices outlines  rise of lawyer-turned cyclist, others

    This weekend’s edition of the Globacom-sponsored CNN African Voices outlines the sensational rise to prominence of a Kenyan lawyer, Saloni Kantari, who switched from being a litigator to a cycling instructor.

    Besides Kantari, the 30-minute magazine programme will also profile two other African athletes who deploy body fitness to drive social change. The duo are Tshepo Nkhabu from Lesotho  and Mitu Monteiro, who hails from Sal in Cape Verde.

    The first of the trio, Kenyan Saloni Kantaria, is an entrepreneur, who brings the possibility of high tech fitness to Nairobi’s residents, inspiring the country to embrace the culture of physical fitness as a way of stimulating the development of its human capital.

    She was  a competitive tennis player and studio instructor and capped her laurels with a flourishing law practice before quitting the wig and gown to found “Reform Cycling and Strength Studio”, the first indoor boutique cycling and fitness studio in Nairobi. Her story is an amazing description of how one woman, through courage, strength and convictions, seeks to improve the health of families in her native Kenya.

    The second athelete, Tshepo Nkhabu from Lesotho, founded a cycling organization called “Hands of Life” at the age of sixteen in the belief that “giving is the mother of all successes.”  The fitness organization has given youths a positive outlet to express their talents and leadership skills under a conducive atmosphere. Tshepo recognised that the young people in his local community of Mafeteng had no recreational centre to resort to after school to grow, learn, and develop their leadership skills.

    His  enthusiasm for cycling and sports from the cradle culminated in  the life-changing impact of the organization on   youths which made the United States Peace Corps collaborate with the organization  to employ  cycling and camping to the  teaching of essential life skills and HIV prevention in a country with the world’s second highest prevalence of HIV.

    The last guest on the programme, Mitu Monteiro from Sal in Cape Verde, was born Oteniel Jorge Monteiro, and is a professional kite surfer. Mitu pioneered strapless surfing because  he did not have enough funds to afford straps. He surfs one of the most renowned  waves in the world named, Teapuhoo, which is located in Tahiti, the largest island in French Polynesia in the South Pacific archipelago. He has, through the sport, launched his community on the world map.

    The sponsor of the programme, Globacom, said in a press statement released in Lagos that it was proud of the achievements of these young Africans who have recorded amazing feats in their chosen passions and consequently mentored thousands of youths in the process.

     

  • ‘Glo committed to Africa’s economic prosperity’

    National telecoms giant, Globacom, has restated its commitment to the transformation of Africa’s huge potential to economic prosperity.

    Speaking ahead of 2019 Africa CEO Forum, with the themed Open Africa: from continental treaties to business realities, of which the company is the lead sponsor, Globacom said its desire to help Africa fast-track  its development underscored the company’s sponsorship of the forum which  comes up in Kigali, Rwanda, on March 25.

    The company said that the growth and development of the continent will be the major focus of chief executives of African businesses, international investors and policymakers that will participate in the forum.

    “We share Africa CEO Forum’s objective of using regional integration to drive private sector growth and create more African champions,” Globacom said in a statement issued in Lagos last week.

    At the forum, in which the telecommunication company is the Apex Diamond partner, Mrs. Bella Disu, Globacom’s Executive Vice Chairman, will chair the ‘Women in Business Initiative’ session, in addition to her contribution to other syndicate sessions.

    The company  said: “This is part of our efforts to empower African businesses and spur economic growth in the region. Since we started operations in 2003, we have been the forefront of promoting economic growth. We have continuously invested heavily in building reliable communication infrastructure to support economic freedom.

    “We became the first company to single-handedly build an international submarine cable, Glo 1, to provide sufficient bandwidth to drive internet penetration. The 9,800-km-long cable has landing points in Lagos, Nigeria; Accra, Ghana; Dakar, Senegal; Nouakchott, Mauritania; Casablanca, Morocco; Sesimbra, Portugal; Vigo, Spain, and Bude in England.”

    Over 40 panel discussions, public-private workshops and case studies by business leaders, shareholders, investors, heads of state and ministers will feature during the event where  issues to be discussed are challenges facing Africa’s private sector, including the “representation of top women executives in the boardroom and the modernisation of family business governance”.

  •  Glo-sponsored CNN African Voices profiles change agents

    African Voices sponsored by Globacom on the Cable News Network(CNN) is profiling the impactful contributions of three  change agents  to their communities through education and innovation in its latest edition.

    The trio who are guests in this week’s edition of the magazine programme include Tanzania’s girls’ advocate, Rebecca Gyumi; Solomon King Benge, the founder of Fundi bots from Kampala  and a social entrepreneur, Misan Rewane, who hails from Nigeria.

    Gyumi, a lawyer, is the Founder & Executive Director at Msichana Initiative, a Tanzanian NGO which empowers the  girl-child through education, while addressing key challenges which limit girls’ rights to education.  has equally worked for over eight years with Femina, a youth focused organisation, as a TV personality.

    Gyumi is respected for a  landmark case on child marriages which she won consequent upon  a petition she filed at the High Court of Tanzania. She had challenged the Tanzania Marriage Act, 1971 which legalises marriage by  adolescent girls from the age of 14.

    Her victory on the case led to the decision to raise the minimum age of marriage to 18 for both Tanzanian  boys and girls. This, among other achievements culminated in the award of the  UN Human Rights Prize to her.

    The second guest on the programme, Uganda’s Solomon King Bende founded Fundi Bots which  “employs robotics training within and outside  African schools to create and inspire a new generation of students and innovators who are better prepared for careers in the technology sector and who can become change-makers in their communities.”

    An  engineer by training, Benge deploys science through robots to drive home the possibility of new innovations in Uganda.

    The third guest, Nigeria’s Misan  Rewane, is equipping young adults with the skills to build careers of their choices.

    Harvard-trained Rewane is the Chief Executive  Officer of WAVE (West Africa Vocational Education). He has a  resolve to ameliorate the incidence of youth unemployment in Nigeria, by teaching young people the skills needed to maintain successful careers in their chosen fields of human endeavour.

  • Glo urges subscribers to pre-order Samsung S10

    Globacom has urged its subscribers to pre-order the Samsung Galaxy S10 phones and be among the first set of subscribers worldwide to use the next generation device.

    Announcing the unique opportunity in Lagos, the telco called on any of its  interested subscribers to pre-order the Samsung Galaxy S10 2019 flagship phones.

    Globacom, in a statement, listed the phones to include S10E, S10, and S10 plus, which were specially designed to mark the 10th anniversary of Samsung and its unique “S” series.

    Globacom assured that any phone user in the country who acquires the S10 series through its Gloworld outlets across the country will have the opportunity to win Galaxy Buds, the new revolutionary headset, worth N45,000 and six-month data.

     

    Samsung, the producer of the series, had announced that the phones are “engineered to be a conversation changer with a novel-looking infinity 6.1-inch O-screen and triple-lens rear camera that takes ultra-wide photos with QHD+ resolutions and 8GB RAM”.

    The phones also have in-screen fingerprint sensor and wireless power share that could serve family and friends. Samsung explained that the Galaxy S10E is cheaper as it was specially designed for low budget subscribers wishing to enjoy the same avant-garde features.

  • Glo, Huawei empower 30 varsities, 150 students

    Nigeria’s second largest carrier, Globacom and global information communication technology (ICT) firm, Huawei Technologies have partnered to reward Nigerian students across institutions in the country with a combination of high-end smartphones and super-fast internet service. The programme, targeted at 30 universities and 150 Nigerian students, will be offering free Huawei smartphones loaded with six months unlimited Glo 4G data to five students and five Huawei routers with pre-loaded 60GB of Glo 4G data to the institution. Students to be rewarded are the top five final year students in each institution.

    According to the two firms, the plan is to aid fast and free internet Wi-Fi connectivity for research in schools to enable students stay connected to good internet for academic tasks while outside of the school premises for free.

    The programme kicked off yesterday at the Babcock University, Ilishan, Ogun State, where the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academics, Prof Iheayichukwu Okoro, led other members of the university to receive the routers.

    The five outstanding final year students of Babcock University who received the Huawei Y5 smartphones were Dogo Edafe Bawa of Business Education, Olusoji Ifejesu Precious of Accounting Department, Ojutiku Toluwanimi Oluwaseun of Economics, Ajulibe Goziem Benjamin of Medical Laboratory Science and Anifowose Airat Morolake of Computer Science department.

  • Glo 2 submarine cable activation coming

    Nigeria’s second largest carrier, Globacom, has said its second submarine cable, Glo 2, will be launched this year to improve service to its customers and accelerate economic development in the country.

    Its Group Chief Technical Officer, Sanjib Roy, who spoke during a media event at Eko Hotel, said when the cable is launched, it will stimulate  the overall socio-economic development of the rivers and Niger Delta regions of the country.

    According to him, the cable will provide the much needed bandwidth for local information communication technology (ICT) business to flourish. He added that it will also provide back up for the terrestrial fibre route from Port Harcourt to Lagos for much better resilience in case of fibre cuts.

    He said the cable will contain three fiber pairs which include Fiber  Pair 1 (Express) – connecting Lagos directly to Southern part of Nigeria with terrestrial extension to existing terrestrial  backbone; Fiber Pair 2 (Omnibus 1) – with eight Branching Units (BU) to offshore oil stations and communities; and Fiber Pair 3 (Omnibus 2) – with two switchable Branching Units (BU) southward Africa

    Speaking on new initiatives for this year, Roy said the telco has done proof of concept for 5G in 700megahertz (Mhz) band for Internet of Things (IoT) application and plans to introduce new data analytics tools to capture subscriber experience in real time and taking pre-emptive action to improve the network.

    He said the telco plans new prepaid charging system that will enable new products and give more choices to its subscribers. Others are new contact centre solution, sites roll out deeper into the rural areas to bridge the digital divide between the cities and villages. Globacom will also embark on new densification sites to increase capacity, thus providing a congestion free network with superior quality in voice and data.

    Roy said: “Swapping of old equipment in the remaining states for better quality and experience to our subscribers; rolling out long term evolution (LTE) 1800Mhz through frequency re-farming to give choice for everyone to enjoy the fruits of technology;  upgrading Glo 1 capacity by another 100G for data speed; equipment more path redundancy to take care of fibre cuts and investment in creating intelligent network operating centre (NOC) to give the best value to our customer with rapid response time in monitoring and correcting network problems.”

    He said last year was a year of massive investment in equipment and infrastructure to improve the network availability, capacity, quality and upgrading, adding that the huge investments were  also to scale up the network for the future  and innovation in new products.

    According to him, the telco has deployed more than 2000 new generators and 6000 new batteries for better network availability, stressing that work is ongoing on the telco’s more than 1000km of fibre route for relocation of fibre which are having multiple cuts where the road construction is completed.

    “Globacom has streamlined site distribution to fuelling contractors. We are already seeing the improvement resulting into higher activation and traffic capacity. We have ordered 1710 base transceiver station (BTS) and 2200 High Capacity Node B. Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and Rivers have undergone equipment swap while Edo and Delta are currently being swapped.

    “We have also deployed high wattage radio remote units (RRU) for 3G and multi-sector antenna for better 3G indoor coverage and high speed data download. 750- 3G multi-sectors and 700 high capacity CE boards have been ordered to enable our subscribers to continue to enjoy high speed data. The result is that we now have a much better data and voice network in terms of download speed, quality of signal and coverage. In terms of backhaul capacity, we are upgrading the capacity of existing microwave links, converting TDM linke to internet protocol (IP) for 2G and 3G; deploying high capacity microwave back up links to increase data backhaul capacity and protect traffic against fibre cuts,” Roy said.

    According to him, the introduction of new E Band Radio Technology in network resulted in increase in band width from 400megabyte (MB) to 1.5 – 2 gigabyte (GB) in Lagos, Oyo, Ogun and Rivers states while 1000 microwave were ordered to modernise the transmission network to IP.

    Glo 1 submarine cable capacity has been upgraded to 300G all the way from Lagos to the United Kingdom providing huge bandwidth for mobile and enterprise businesses.

    He said: “We have a brand new network with superior quality and higher capacity; activation is looking up; traffic is going up while consumption. This means we are reaching out to more and more Nigerians to enable them to achieve their dreams. We  are going to embark on scientific and methodical way of rolling out new sites based on feedback from the regions on where the sites are needed to address customer complaints. Already, there are many sites that are in the process of rollout based on field feedback.

    “We are also rolling out LTE in 1800MHz band for greater handset compatibility and subscriber adoption and planning to rollout LTE in 1800 Band this year in major cities to increase our Data penetration in 4G LTE and allow higher handset adoption to enable and empower the masses  and harness the future into their  fingers,”

  • GLO invests in life transforming solutions, signs on Anthony Joshua

    GLO invests in life transforming solutions, signs on Anthony Joshua

    Telecommunications giant, Globacom, has announced a recent investment in cutting edge  industry solutions in its avowed commitment to prepare Nigeria’s telecom subscribers for the inevitable digital future.

    “We have invested massively in new technologies to introduce these products which we believe will redefine business, social and personal pursuits”, Globacom’s Deputy Chief Operating Officer,  Technical, Bisi Koleoso stated at a meeting with media chiefs in Lagos on Friday.

    The company equally unveiled its new communication direction with its surprise endorsement by World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Anthony Joshua. The endorsement contract with the world heavyweight boxing champion covers  Nigeria and Ghana.

    Joshua is a proud holder of   four major world championship belts, namely International Boxing Federation (IBF) title, World Boxing Association (WBA) title, World Boxing Organisation (WBO) title, and International Boxing Organisation (IBO) title which he won between 2016 and 2018.

    The new products  showcased at the event include Glo Drive, Glo Health, Glo Entertainment Portal, Glo Mobile Money, Glo Call Connect Service, World Connect and  Glo Titi, the Artificial Intelligence  platform.

    Koleoso, disclosed that  the  total telecommunications solutions provider was committed to ensuring that Nigerians were not left behind in the march towards a digitalised world.

    “Having ended 2018 on a very high note, retaining our position as the second largest operator with a remarkable 45.3 million subscriber base, we have resolved to further enrich customer experience on our network with these new offerings,” Mr Koleoso stated.

    According to him,, Glo Drive, solves  the challenges encountered by subscribers  with storing their data by offering limitless storage capacity in the cloud, while Glo Health Care is a digital health assistant which avails them  access to the best  doctors in the world directly on their phones while  Glo Entertainment Portal gives  single point of access for millions of digital entertainment content on  Glo Café.

    Koleoso explained that Glo Mobile Money is an agent network which will hasten the drive towards a cash-light Nigerian society by enabling  financial transactions on the mobile phone and extending financial inclusion to over 60 million unbanked people in the country.

    In the same vein, Glo Artificial Intelligence platform will engage customers directly and assist them to get information about data plans, prepaid plans and Value Added Service (VAS). This enables customers to choose the most convenient plan, resolve issues and ask questions 24/7 without any human interface.

    Similarly,  Glo Connect which helps subscribers stay connected all the time even if the subscriber’s phone is switched off, has zero balance, or is out of coverage area.

    World Connect, which ensures that business executives remain connected to their offices anywhere in the world by offering them the most affordable roaming data in 60 countries with over 6.4 million wifi hotspots worldwide. The infrastructure will be available in all world airports and is the last of the products announced at the media parley.

    In a TV commercial shown during the event, Anthony Oluwafemi Joshua, who has Nigerian biological roots, endorsed the Globacom  for its reach and speed, describing the network as his reliable partner.

    “I respect the ownership and management of Globacom and as a Nigerian, I believe charity must begin from home. I believe in Glo,” he enthused

    While drawing parallels between himself and Globacom,   Joshua said “we have the fastest speed, longest reach and the Nigerian fighting spirit as game changers. Glo, I hail o!” He concluded by giving the “wakanda” salute.

  • Glo sponsors Special athletes to Olympics

    Globacom is sponsoring three members of the Nigerian team to the next Special Olympic World Summer Games slated for Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), between March 14 and 21.

    Nigeria will join other 171 countries to compete for medals in track and field events, featuring athletes with intellectual disabilities; among them being those with autism, down’s syndrome and several forms of learning disorders.

    The beneficiaries who received their cheques at  brief presentation event held at the Globacom headquarters in Lagos are  Miss Tejumola Ogunlela, aquatics; Chima Maduakor – Track and field; Oyinkansola Givens Joseph – Badminton. Glo’s largesse is meant to cater for the cost of training  and travel for the individual athletes.

    Presenting the cheques to the athletes, its Executive Director, Legal Services, Mrs. Gladys Talabi, said the telco had also sponsored two members of the successful Nigerian Contingent to the Special Olympics in 2011. That contingent returned from Athens in Greece with a total of 27 medals comprising nine gold, nine silver and nine bronze medals.

    Talabi said the telco was again sponsoring this year’s participation because the games are meant to improve lives of the special children, helping them  to reach their full potential, and to create greater social inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities.

    She commended the athletes for their determination in the face of disability. She said it was not compulsory that the team should win medals, saying that the fact that they were bold enough to dare despite of their challenges was victory on its own.

     

  • Glo, African Health partner on women empowerment

    Globacom has partnered an international community development organisation, African Health Now (AHN) to present “Maternity Go Boxes”  to over 300 expectant mothers at the Primary Health Centre (PHC), Iwaya, Makoko, Lagos.

    The “Maternity Go Box” contains most of the items needed by a new mother to make child delivery stress-free. The items included six yard cloth for backing the baby, sanitary towels, baby clothes, soaps, wipes and other essentials needed to stabilise the new mother.

    Welcoming the expectant mothers at the event held recently in Iwaya, Lagos, Globacom’s Regional Manager, Lagos 2, Mr. Victor Kalu, explained that Globacom was partnering AHN to improve the health of women by increasing pre-natal care, reducing infant mortality and supporting mothers to deal with post-partum depression.

  • Glo unveils GameBox with 400 games

    Telecoms giant, Globacom, has launched a mobile game application, which offers unlimited access to more than 400 games.

    Globacom said in a statement in Lagos that the new service, tagged: “GameBox”, has all the popular games, including well followed series such as Evoland, Mini Metro, Football Cup 2018, Badland and Cut the Rope and offers subscribers on  android devices full-length games devoid of interruptions or in-app purchase offers.

    The mobile app, available on  both prepaid and postpaid Glo subscribers, benefitted from the technical proficiency of renowned global games aggregators as it contains more than 400 premium games from a wide variety of genres, including Action, Adventure, Arcade, Brain & Puzzle, Casual, Kids, Racing, Sports and Strategy.

    Subscribers, who wish to access the app, which attracts N10 daily, N50 weekly or N150 monthly  tariffs are requested to send the word “GAMES” or “Games” to 900, toll-free, or dial *900# just as users, who wish to opt out of the app will be required to send “Unsub Games” to 900 toll-free and they will be unsubscribed.

    Any of the options settled for by subscribers offers access to download more than 400 premium games while assuring subscribers that “Glo GameBox is bound to change the face of mobile gaming in Nigeria, as it presents unequalled game options and unprecedented height of excitement to subscribers”.