'Glo-ing' In Nigeria

Glo Mobile, the GSM subsidiary of Globacom Nigeria Limited has been a great player in the telecom industry since it was launched in 2003.

First came the rather aggressive adverts on all the available media in the country: TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazine and even the Internet. Nigerians were left to wonder what this new entrant could offer. Glo Mobile made promises, to be Nigeria’s best mobile phone operator, to break the hitherto existing duopoly of VMobile Nigeria (then known as Econet Wireless Nigeria) and MTN Nigeria. The promises looked good. One thing was certain, Glo had the financial stamina to ‘walk the talk’.

Nearly two years later, Glo Mobile has completely change the scenerio of the GSM telecom sub-sector in Nigeria, and the story has never been the same again.

First came the adverts that were all rather indigenous. Glo mobile made use of local Nigerian musicians to drive home the point. Notable amongst the musicians were King Sunny Ade and Daddy Showkey. Moreover, Glo’s flagship colour is limish green; this Nigerians could identify with, since the colour of the country’s flag was Green – White – Green. Moreover, Glo made very colourful posters and bill boards with the inscriptions, “Glo with Pride”, “Lets glo with you” etc.

As events unfolded, it became crystal clear to everyone that Glo mobile was in, for real business. Glo launched Nigeria’s most advanced cellular network, a 2.5G (advanced form of 2nd generation phone network that enables a cellular network to offer GPRS and MMS). GPRS was free for Glo’s subscribers for over a month.

No other cellular network has been able to match the wide variety of Value Added Services offered by Glo. None. Their wide variety of value-added-services include: MultiMedia Messaging Service (Glo MMS), Mobile Internet (via GPRS), Magic Plus (an SMS-based service that gives subscribers access to a host of information, commerce and entertainment content), Ringtones & logos, Txt2Email, Email2Txt, Text Messaging, Personalized Voicemail service, Roaming (for both prepaid & postpaid subscribers).

Other services on the glo mobile network include: Calling Line Identification Presentation (CLIP), Call Waiting and Call Hold, Call Forwarding, Call Barring, International Roaming and Conference Call.

Glo Mobile’s main objective appears to be “Building the biggest and best network in Africa”. This is on their website. Little wonder. They have since demonstrated this. As at time of writing, Glo mobile’s network has 3.3 million subscribers, and has coverage in 31 states (out of 36) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, making it the only network in Nigeria to have almost covered the entire country in less than two years. The rapid spread has been adjudged as one of the fastest in Africa.

Glo mobile is currently running a promotion which it tagged “Everyone Is an Instant Winner”. In the current promo, Glo Mobile is giving 15% instant bonus credit for every recharge. Based on its monthly recharge volume, the payout on this promo for Glo may be in the region of N500 million monthly.

The present Glo Mobile offering therefore appears to over-shadow that of any other promotion in the country, particularly in the telecommunication industry.

The Instant winner promo also differs from other promotions because every Glo subscriber is a winner.

Glo Mobile emerged with a strong vision to make a difference in the Nigerian mobile sub-telecom sector. They are doing just that. They have changed the industry for the better. The subscribers now have cause to smile.