Globacom to operate here. But NCA tight-lipped(Front Page) June 17, 2008

Story:Michael Donkor
GLOBACOM Telecommunications Services, operators of Glo Mobile, has won the licence to operate mobile cellular service in the country.
Glo Mobile becomes the sixth mobile service operator in Ghana.
In a letter to the management of Glo Mobile Ghana dated June 12, 2008, Ghana's telecommunication regulatory body, the National Communications Authority (NCA), said its Board of Directors had declared Glo Mobile Ghana winner of the well contested international bid for the award of a mobile cellular licence in the country.
According to a credible source at Glo Mobile office in Nigeria, the NCA congratulated Glo Mobile on the feat, adding that it looked forward to the telecom giant's contributions to the development of Ghana's Information Communications Technology (ICT) industry.
Eleven companies applied for the licence and were narrowed to two after the NCA scrutinised them.
The two, which were Waried Telecom from the Middle East and Glo Mobile, were further re-assessed and the latter emerged the winner.
Meanwhile, when the authorities at the NCA were contacted, they could not confirm nor deny the story.
The source said after the keenly contested open international bid, the NCA adjudged Glo Mobile 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.
It said Glo Mobile also emerged tops in the commercial bid, leading to its eventual announcement as the winner of the GSM licence.
In a swift response, Glo Mobile's management expressed gratitude to the NCA for the confidence reposed in the company and promised to roll out aggressively in the country very shortly.
The management said the people and government of many African countries had been clamouring for Glo to come and replicate in their countries its phenomenal success story in Nigeria, which was spurred by Glo Mobile’s superior network quality, pocket friendly tariffs, life transforming promotions and innovative products and services.
Glo began operation with the first GPRS/2.5G network in Nigeria in August 2003 and pioneered the introduction of revolutionary products and services to the Nigerian telecoms market. Some of those products and services are Per Second Billing, Mobile Internet, Mobile Banking, Vehicle Tracking, Magic Plus, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and Blackberry.
With more than 18 million subscribers, Glo Mobile is regarded the fastest growing telecommunication operator in Africa and the Middle East and is chaired by entrepreneur extraordinaire and multi-billionaire businessman, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr.
According to the management of Glo Mobile, aside building the biggest and best telecommunication network in Africa, they were developing Glo 1, Africa's first private submarine optic fibre cable that will run from Lagos in Nigeria through 15 African countries to Portugal and England.
It said it would also extend to New York in the United States of America.
It said on completion, the project would bring incredible bandwidth to the African continent and revolutionise the way business was done in Africa.