A cross section of Ghanaians who spoke with Adom News about Glo Mobile’s entry into the market says it is welcoming news but they expect Glo to provide the alternative to the ‘years of sloppy services’ from the other telecom operators.
Some also say they do not believe Glo will be any different from the rest because the entire telecom industry seems to be faced with similar quality of service challenges, which is largely blamed on fibre cuts by road construction workers, cable theft, and refusal of some Ghanaians to allow telecom operators to mount towers in their communities.
Glo has promised to be ‘aggressive’ and competitive on quality of network service, tariffs and customer care, and it boasts of a network ready to accommodate up to 10 million customers congestion-free for starters.
That promise is backed by over US$750million worth of infrastructure comprising the latest broadband technology, Next Generation Networks, over 1,600 state-of-the-art Base Transceiver Stations (BTS), four ultra modern Switches with capacity for up to 10 million lines with congestion-free service, 18 Base Switching Centres (BSC), 800 3G Node Bs, an ultra-modern Call Centre and 25 GloWorld outlets.
All that is also complemented by the high-capacity Glo 1 submarine fibre-optic cable that connects Ghana directly to Europe with a dedicated extension to the USA and a 2,900 kilometre-long network of terrestrial fibre optic ring within Ghana, “to provide Ghanaians with premium service on Glo”.
Glo is also the first telecom operator to launch from scratch at almost 100% nationwide coverage, and Glo Ghana Boss George Andah says that is to ensure that right from the onset Ghanaians can make calls on Glo no matter their location in the country.
Glo has just launched a number reservation campaign to enable at least one million new customers to reserve special 0233 numbers on Glo ahead of the launch of their commercial services either later this month or early next month.
The “Reserve Your Number Campaign” allows Ghanaians to text a special number beginning with 023-3 plus one’s own choice of six digits, to 0230010100 and reserve that special number until commercial service begins.
Some telecom bosses have suggested that the Ghanaian telecom market cannot accommodate Glo, but George Andah says if competition is not ready for Glo, Ghanaians are.
Adom News has been checking how ready Ghanaians are for Glo and what their expectations are.
Out of more than 10 persons interviewed, everyone said they have reserved a special numbers on Glo for themselves and for other family members, except two; those two are aged - one is a 66-year-old female money lender, Emelia Botchwey, and the other is a 72-year old male pensioner, Samuel Nortey.
But both of them said they would definitely get connected on Glo because of the poor services they get from their current networks.
Adom News stopped at the doors of no less a person than the Akwamuhene Odeneho Akoto Kwafo III and he said Glo is welcome to Ghana and he is confident Glo will do well because they are already doing exploits in Ghana sponsoring the Premier League and other things, which Ghanaians love.
Contrary to the opinion by some telecom bosses that Ghana is not ready for a sixth operator, Odeneho Akoto Kwafo III said “Ghanaians are ready to welcome even a hundred telecom operators because it goes to give consumers choice and push service providers to pay attention to high quality of service.”
Osu Mantse Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona also welcomed Glo and said he has confidence Glo will make a difference on the market, adding however that Glo has a tall order because they have come at a time when almost everybody is complaining about poor network service and so they would be expected to something drastic to assure Ghanaians of better services.
Franklin Adumuah is a banqueting staff at one of Ghana’s leading hotels, and he told Adom News he welcomes Glo particularly because he has had enough with his network, which pose challenges even when he is loading credit to make calls.
“I also welcome Glo because they are from neighbouring Nigeria, and that means they are one of our own – and I look forward to that quality service they have promised,” he added.
Frank’s wife, Belinda Seshie, a shop owner at Teshie said she would join Glo because she is fed up with the situation where often times she would be in the bedroom and her husband would be in the kitchen but when she calls her husband’s phone, she gets a message that her husband’s phone is either switched off or out of coverage area.
Samuel Idan said he does not expect Glo to make any much difference in terms of quality of service but he will choose Glo over some of the other networks because of their near nationwide coverage, adding that he has reserved two numbers for himself, one for his wife and another for his brother, and he is eagerly waiting for commercial service to start on Glo because the others have failed him.
A Critical Care Nurse, Vida Sowah said for a long time now she has not been able to call her husband on her current network, so she has reserved the same number with Glo’s 0233 because she believes Glo will offer better services.
Sandra Ollenu is a self employed Caterer at La and she is interested in quality of service and affordable tariffs because the nature of her job demands lots of calls and she is tired of paying so much on her current network for sloppy service, which make lose business often times.
“I have reserved a number on Glo and am waiting for better services and affordable rates,” she said.
Sandra’s son, Nicholas Amarh Ollenu, is a student of the Ghana Telecom University, and he said he had heard Glo is one of the best networks in its home country, Nigeria, and that was why he reserved the number so he can switch to Glo and get better network quality.
Horst Ayub is a Graphic Designer; he refused to speak on tape, but said he has heard Glo gave away phones and one month free calls when they launched in Nigeria so he does not expect anything less from them as they take off in Ghana.
“I have reserved a number on Glo and if they give those free devices and services I will stay, but if not I will quit Glo,” he said.
Adom News checked with Glo Ghana Boss, George Andah and he said Glo does promotions like most telecom operators but what they have promised Ghanaians for now are “world class service, world class communication experience, fastest and most stable data etc” and not free phones and free calls.
Jerry Mordy is a journalist, and he said he has reserved numbers for himself, his wife and his mother, and he is only waiting to start using Glo because his current networks are not reliable.
Some of the people who spoke with Adom News preferred anonymity, but the sentiments were largely similar, except some also said they do not expect anything better from Glo, arguing that they do not think Glo has a magic wand to go round the common challenges facing the rest of the multinational telecom players already in the market.
True to their stance, Glo officials recently admitted they have also had their own share of fibre cuts, even though they have not started commercial service yet.
Glo is the sixth telecom operator in Ghana, and 0some telecom bosses say it would have difficulties growing in the relatively small and challenging Ghanaian market, but others say it has room and opportunity to grow on the back of data services and good will from Ghanaians.