Glo Mobile has announced it will officially launch its commercial mobile services in Ghana on January 19, 2012. Glo Ghana Chief Operating Officer, George Andah made the announcement at the Glo CAF Awards at the Banquet Hall in Accra. He said a series of activities would precede the actual launch to ensure that Glo’s superior services got the launch it deserved. Glo was licensed in 2008 as the sixth mobile operator in Ghana and Ghanaians have since been expecting the company to launch its services. Glo first hinted it would launch on March 6, 2011, then it shifted the date to further back until the National Communications Authority (NCA) hinted Glo had up to the end of August, 2011 to cover at least 50% of Ghana or they would be penalized. While Ghanaians waited for the August deadline, the Minister of Communication, Haruna Iddrisu gave Glo up to September 15, 2011 to launch before that date passed and then came another hint the ultimatum had been extended to October 15, 2011. The new date also passed and there was no show, but Glo took the opportunity of the lull to introduce George Andah as it COO for Ghana. Glo then hinted it would launch on November 17, 2011 but yet again put the event off till further notice. The public announcement of January 19, 2012 is the most definite date the company has given and by no less a person than its COO at no less a function than the CAF Awards. Glo had earlier said that it would launch on an aggressive note, part of which is the almost 100% coverage it would be starting with, plus Glo is the first to start with its own massive fibre optics backbone and also post the introduction of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in Ghana. The company recently introduced a select group of journalists to one of its 25 call centres, located on the Spintex Road in Accra with capacity to seat 600 customer service staff. Journalists witnessed how the call centre staff were taking calls from people designated across the country with active Glo 023 numbers. The company also announced it has invested some US$600 million over the last three years in establishing a unique, seamless and world class LTE network that would give Ghanaians the highest quality of service. Glo said it is ready to take on at least 10 million customers for starters and that its network capacity is expandable. The company said it has five switch centres, 18 Base Station Controllers, 1,600 Base Transmitter Stations, 800 3.5G Cell sites, 2,850 Kilometres of fibre, 25 Glo World Shops across country, and has employed about 400 Ghanaians. The company is also headline sponsor of Ghana's Premier football league and title sponsor of the senior national soccer team, the Black Stars. Glo announced early on it would soon issue a short code for people to reserve their special Glo numbers ahead of its planned launch. While the short code is not yet out, a brief in-house number reservation trial leaked and within a matter of hours, almost 10,000 people reserved numbers on Glo.