The Glo 1 submarine cable system, which will link 16 West African countries to the rest of the world, this week finally landed in Nigeria with expectations that it will provide high-speed Internet services and make telecom services cheaper and more reliable to users throughout the region. The landing of the cable in Nigeria is seen by communication experts as a milestone in the history of Nigeria’s communication industry, the biggest telecommunications market in Africa. The 9,800-kilometer cable runs from the U.K. and connects Nigeria, Spain, Portugal and West African countries, with branching units to cities along its route. Globacom Group Executive Director Paddy Adenuge said in a statement that the cable has a life span of between 15 and 20 years. Adenuge said the cable will provide the needed opportunity for West African countries to leap forward economically through cost-effective voice, data, video and e-commerce services across Africa, Europe and the rest of the world. “It is a good thing that Africa is having so many cables to provide broadband services. We all expect that the cost of communication will highly drop as the cables compete for customers,” said Edith Mwale, African Center for ICT Development program officer. The landing of the cable means that the West African region now has four undersea cables including WASC (West Africa submarine cable), the Main One cable and the South Atlantic West Africa Submarine (SAT-3) cable, which is already servicing the region. The Glo 1 cable has a current capacity of 640GB per second and an ultimate capacity of 2.5 terabits per second.