GLO-1 Finally Lands in Lagos: West Africa’s 2nd Undersea Cable has Arrived

Yesterday, GLO-1, the 9,800 km long cable between the UK and Nigeria, and the first to be built by a private company, landed in Lagos. GLO-1 will eventually add landing stations in Accra and Cotonou, in addition to its current anchoring in Nigeria.

Most undersea cables, including the SAT-3 that currently connects West Africa to the rest of the world, are built by consortiums of private and public (national) companies. Glo-1 is unusual because it was financed entirely by Nigeria’s GlobalCom. Glo’s COO claims:

Glo-1′s current and upgradable capacity is enough to provide whatever broadband capacity Nigerians require for the next 15 to 20 years at the minimum projections.He disclosed that the telecoms giant had factored Nigeria’s long term bandwidth requirements into the equation, adding that Glo 1 “can carry voice traffic of all operators internationally. We can also provide IPLC for corporates”.

Nigeria currently depends on the NITEL monopoly for access to its own SAT-3 landing station and buys extra bandwidth from neighboring Benin.

Update: GLO-1 will not be landing in Cotonou. But a girl can still dream, right?