Globacom to Withdraw from Ghana

Major telecommunications operator, Glo Mobile is said to be considering withdrawing its services from Ghana.

According to Ghana news agency report, the company is considering the move due to the challenges it is facing in its bid to roll out services across Ghana.

Sources close to the company were said to have disclosed that there were some interests frustrating and sabotaging its planned nationwide take off plan.

Globacom had just a week after it successfully launched its network in Benin Republic, won the Ghanaian licence to operate mobile cellular service in the Republic of Ghana in June 2008.

The company, it was gathered, was said to have enumerated the challenges making it to consider leaving Ghana to include vandalisation of its equipment, encroachment on the frequency allocated to it by the National Communications Authourity, NCA,organised sabotage of its billboards and the delay in securing approval for the swift deployment of its infrastructures like base stations.
Ghana's telecommunications regulatory body, the NCA had in a letter to the management of Glo Mobile Ghana dated June 12th, 2008, said its Board of Directors had declared Glo Mobile Ghana winner of the highly competitive international bid for the award of a mobile cellular licence in the country.

The NCA congratulated Glo Mobile for the feat, adding that it looked forward to the telecoms giant's contributions to the development of Ghana's Information Communications and Technology industry.

After the keenly contested open international bid, the NCA adjudged Glo Mobile, dubbed "the rising star of Africa's telecoms industry", as the winner of the technical bid, anchoring its verdict on the superiority of Glo's technical presentation, pedigree and extensive roll out plan for Ghana.

But two years after the licence award, Globacom officials were said to be concerned that while they have been working round the clock to formally roll-out the network, some forces have been deliberately working round the clock to cripple its operation and prevent it from rolling out quickly to the detriment of the Ghanaian society.

Another source close to the company said the operator's management felt that its infrastructures in the country are not getting adequate protection from the law enforcement agencies.
Glo Mobile Ghana recently embarked on a massive deployment of outdoor advertising structures comprising billboards, light boxes, lamppost signs and brand marks (branded lit globes) throughout Accra as part of the build-up towards the nationwide launch of the company’s operations in Ghana. But immediately after the deployment of the outdoor advertising materials which generated a lot of positive remarks, a number of the outdoor structures were said to be vandalized by unknown persons.

The source complained that in February, about 15 light boxes mounted from the Airport traffic light median to the Opeibea House traffic light, were deliberately destroyed with the flexi materials used on both sides of the unit torn. One of the Glo brand marks, mounted in Accra was also destroyed.

About two weeks ago, about 16 light boxes numbering about 16, from the King Tackie Tawiah overpass to Busy Internet, installed by Glo, were also vandalised. “Every single unit, with materials made from top grade flexi, was defaced with a sharp object, suspected to be a knife or razor blade”, disclosed the source.

Another major area of concern for Glo, it was learnt, is the blanket ban on erection of mast by the National Environmental Protection Agency. The development was said to have affected Glo the most being the only network building a nationwide telecoms company from the scratch.

Since Glo was granted a licence to operate in Ghana, it has invested huge resources to deploy a nationwide state-of-the art infrastructure. It has also devoted millions of dollars to the sponsorship of the Ghana Premier League, the Ghana National Football Teams and the Ghana National Supporters Union.

Attempts to get officials of Glo to comment on the pull out possibility was not possible before going to press
Glo began operation with the first GPRS/2.5G network in Nigeria in August 2003 and pioneered the introduction of revolutionary products and services into the Nigerian telecoms market such as Per Second Billing, Mobile Internet, Mobile Banking, Vehicle Tracking, Magic Plus, Multi-Media Messaging Service (MMS) and Blackberry.