Accra, April 8, GNA - Glo 1, a high capacity undersea fibre-optic cable, on Friday went live with its services that will link Ghana to West Africa and the rest of the world through high speed data and internet traffic.

The 9,800km long submarine cable network, the first project of its kind to be executed entirely by a single organisation, berthed on the beaches of Osu in Accra.

"We are happy to announce that the wait is over and the Glo 1 is now ready to go live. The relevant tests have been concluded and the facility is now ready to carry traffic," Mr Adewale Sangowawa, Executive Director, Globacom told journalists ahead of the launch later on Friday.

Mr Sangowawa said the state of the art cable would enable all telecom operators to connect for clear quality services through multiple and high quality direct links to various countries across the globe.

It would also enable such operators to interconnect with several international networks and leading traffic carriers in the world, leveraging on Globacom's extensive gateway infrastructure and connectivity with leading networks across the world, he said. "The facility will guarantee access to ultra fast and reliable internet connectivity and will be the driving force for the business community not only in Ghana but also in West Africa," Mr Sangowawa added.

He said businesses in the oil and gas, banking and media, among others, would benefit immensely from the global opportunities that the fibre optic cable would offer.

Apart from telecom carriers and internet services providers, the platform could be used to build robust applications like video conferencing, telemedicine and distance education, among others. Mr Sangowawa said when launched later in the year, Glo Mobile Ghana network would use the Glo 1 cable to deliver excellent and unparalleled quality service to the people and institutions. The Glo 1 facility has been built with leading technologies backed by Globacom and Alcatel-Lucent and is set to transform the country's communications landscape and present Ghanaian businesses with new opportunities of bridging the digital gap between Ghana and the rest of the world.

"These are exciting times indeed for Ghana and the rest of Africa, as Glo 1 comes in to offer immense opportunities for businesses across our continent and enable them to compete on an equal footing with their counterparts elsewhere in the world," said Dr Mike Adenuga Jnr, Chairman of Globacom Limited.

"Today, Glo 1 is here in Ghana to deliver transmission capacity which will radically change the country's economic landscape and, indeed, that of our sub-region."

Glo 1 runs on a huge capacity, upgradable to up to 2.5 terabytes per second. Glo 1 will link to three European countries, namely the United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal and 14 African countries including Ghana, with a dedicated link to the USA. Glo 1 offers 99.9 per cent uptime reliability, world-class long distance voice, video and data communication services to the African customer and caters for long-term bandwidth requirements for voice and data transmission across the West African sub-region. 8 April 11