Ethiopian Telecom close to uprading network

Cellular News | July 4, 2009

Ethiopia’s monopoly mobile network, the Ethiopian Telecommunications
Corporation (ETC) has finished the majority of a GSM network upgrade in the
capital city region. ETC Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Amare Amsalu, told local
Walta Info that 80 per cent of the upgrading works began last March has
already been completed.

Upgrades across the rest of the country should be completed within the next
few weeks. He said the corporation is undertaking the upgrading works at 400
stations in Addis Ababa alone and similar works would be carried out in various
towns across the country.

The operator has also installed some 150 diesel generators to provide backup
electricity due to the unreliable national grid.

Local media reports last October suggested that the network operator had
signed a US$400 million agreement for the supply of 15 million million lines for
its mobile networks over a 4-5 year period.

The state owned monopoly ended Q1 ’09 with an estimated 2.6 million
subscribers, which according to figures from the Mobile World equates
to a population penetration level of just 3.2%.